New ENLACE Doctor Continues Transformation on Cacahuatique Hill

ENLACE's new medical doctor, Dr. Blanco.In one of the poorest and most remote areas in El Salvador, the excitement of transformation continues to grow. Despite the fact that over 75 percent of the residents of Abelines and its surrounding area of Cacahuatique Hill live on less than a dollar a day, the region has improved profoundly over the past eight years. Due to the efforts of willing churches, and with the support of ENLACE staff and donors, this transformation has included initiatives such as potable water, latrines, improved stoves, electricity, nutrition programs, preventive health programs, walkways, housing, and the Fe y Esperanza health clinic. 

While much has been accomplished, there is still much work to be done. According to Zuleyma Blanco, a graduate from the Evangelical University of El Salvador and one of ENLACE’s newest staff members who spends her week at the Abelines clinic and in the surrounding area of Cacahuatique Hill, Abelines has been successful in addressing respiratory problems and other common illnesses, such as intestinal diseases. From 2004 to 2008, the infant mortality rate in Abelines dropped from 47 to two per thousand, among other improved health indicators. However, Dr. Blanco says that there is an ever-present need for preventive health initiatives, specialized drugs for hypertension and diabetes, and because children make up the majority of the population here, the urgent need for pediatric health care is especially important. The situation in the nearby areas of Pajigua and Moncagua is similar, as they are also areas strongly effected by the high incidence of preventable diseases brought about by contact with contaminated water. It is especially important to realize that despite these continued health challenges, this remote region does not have a government health promoter or local, government-sponsored medical clinic. 

Dr. Blanco giving medical assistance to a child in the community of Abelines. This is why local churches with ENLACE's help are filling the gap. There are 10 churches in the region actively working to transform their communities. Health committees spearheaded by the churches in Pajigua and Moncagua are helping to address the preventive and curative health issues and are working with Dr. Blanco as she travels into the more remote areas to see an average of 40 patients per week located all over Cacahuatique Hill. From the Fe y Esperanza clinic in Abelines proper, Dr. Blanco is helping to revitalize the local health committee and will continue to promote preventive health education in that area 

More can be done. More lives can be changed in a real and lasting way. If you'd like to help support community advisors, churches and Dr. Blanco's efforts in this region and other similar efforts in El Salvador, click here. 

CHIMPS in Abelines

Founded and organized by pediatric residents, Children’s Health International Medicine Project of Seattle (CHIMPS) collaborates with ENLACE's church partners in the Abelines region to provide medical care and public health interventions. Over the past seven years members of the CHIMPS teams have helped administer care in the Abelines region while also providing training and encouragement to the multiple Health Committees in the area. In addition, the teams have helped gather vital medical information including a multi-year iron deficiency study.

This year's trip, in mid-April, was focused on dental hygiene. The CHIMPS team conducted dental exams, applied fluoride varnish and distributed dental supplies for more than 400 children. They also gathered important information about the state of dental hygiene in the area while training patients and Health Committee members on prevention of future dental problems. 

Kim administering fluoride treatment in AbelinesENLACE volunteer Kim Frederick reports that the trip was "a true eye-opener to the incredible need for dental health in rural poverty-stricken areas. By the end of the first day, the need for dental care and caries prevention was painfully apparent, as 96% of the children we saw had at least some form of moderate tooth decay, with the average number of caries being greater than four per child. Also, after the first day, 34% of the children were noted as having severe caries in which the tooth or teeth were fully eroded or the roots exposed."

The Abelines region has seen remarkable change in the health of its community members since local churches actively began to serve with ENLACE's accompaniment. Teams like CHIMPS not only provide technical and practical assistance but are an encouragement to the church and community members who are working daily towards community transformation. 

Click here to read Kim's blog entry about her experience in Abelines...  

This is What Community Transformation Looks Like

ENLACE "equips churches to transform communities." And while community transformation is often a hard concept to grasp, these preliminary statistics help to tell the story of transformation for thousands of people in the Abelines region. What has happened in this area of the country over the past few years is nothing short of miraculous. 

Since 2004*:

* Infant mortality rates have dropped  from 47 per 1,000 to two per 1,000 per year.

* Insecure housing rates have decreased from  32% (110 of 341 houses were unsafe) to 14% (48 of 341 houses are unsafe).

* Access to clean water has increased from 1% (4 of 341 households had access to clean water) to 79% (271 of 341 households have access to clean water).

* Access and use of latrines has increased from 33% (113 of 341 households used latrines) to 93% (316 of 341 households use latrines).

* Access to electricity has increased from 0% to 95% (324 of 341 households have access to electricity).

We believe that at the root of any lasting change is the restoration of relationships, the fruit of individual transformation. A few months ago we filmed the following interviews with church and community leaders in the communities in and around Abelines, and we'd like to share with you their stories of transformation.  

This year ENLACE is already working with more than 10 churches in the Abelines region. There are many more churches that are requesting ENLACE's accompaniment to transform their communities as well. You can make help make this happen through your prayers and support. Click here to give to ENLACE's church and community program.

*Preliminary impact estimates 2004-2009. More extensive research is still in process.

New Photos and Amazing Testimonies

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PHOTO GALLERY WITH QUOTES FROM CHURCH AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS IN THE ABELINES REGION.

ENLACE began working in the Los Abelines region in 2000 with the Cornerstone Church. Since that time, this small church has made amazing progress. In addition to many other initiatives, they formed an active health committee, are managing a health clinic, installed hundreds of latrines, built pedestrian bridges, and implemented a clean water project serving thousands of people. Over the past two years, more than 10 churches in the region have also expressed interest in working with ENLACE, desiring to get involved in community transformation. We recently took a few days to ask some members of these new churches what their experience has been like. Click here to see photos and read some of their quotes.

CHIMPS and Newlyweds Collaborating in Transformation

CHIMPS team member seeing one of the hundreds of patients seen during the weekIn June the Children’s Health International Medicine Project of Seattle, CHIMPS, arrived for its annual medical trip to Abelines, a remote, rural village in El Salvador’s northeastern mountains. Since 2003, groups of doctors, pediatricians and medical students from Washington have collaborated with ENLACE to support its ongoing efforts in this region. Not only do they bring thousands of dollars worth of much needed medicine to address the curative medical issues, but they also focus on preventive education in an effective way by preparing charlas, training sessions, for the local health committee. The health committee, established with ENLACE’s help 11 years ago, continues to be the primary health educator for this village of approximately 2000 people.

Anya and Shane Wimberly in Abelines

Anya and Shane Wimberly are newlyweds volunteering with ENLACE for this year (and hopefully longer). Anya had this to say about her experience in Abelines with the CHIMPS medical team. 

"Over the week we were able to hear how people felt, and how they hurt. We realized how much wouldn’t be treated and how much could have been prevented. We saw very clearly that while aid from the outside can ease the pain, it will never end the suffering.

The North American doctors worked hard examining and treating hundreds of people, but their greatest impact was with the local health committee, for whom they provided encouragement and guidance. This committee is a group of organized community members who volunteer to promote public health in the area. We heard a story about two women, each over forty years old, whose involvement in such community organizations gave them both the courage and the motivation to go to school and learn to read. There was no Adult Ed at that time, but these women were so determined that they enrolled in elementary school and studied alongside the children.  

Abelines is a community in transformation, empowered by faith and mobilized in hope. Abelines demonstrates that when war and poverty has done everything in its power to corrupt and destroy, faith has the power to restore. Faith in action is nothing short of a miracle, as people transcend their broken selves to love and serve others."

Click here to read the entire blog on wimberlyjournal.wordpress.com...

Click here to see Anya's photos from the week...

When All Roads Merge Into One

by Margarita Campos and Michelle Bueno

Early last year, Isidro Ramirez, a 42 year-old husband and father of two, was looking for a job. While he had no shortage of work at the time—he was pastoring a new church in San Salvador—he was finding it difficult to support his family as his children began college. Even with his degrees in Christian Leadership and Ministry, Theology and Agronomy, along with 22 years of pastoral experience, Isidro didn’t know what kind of job he would find. That’s when Isidro’s son, Gerson, came across a brief ad asking for pastors with experience in agronomy to apply to work for a Community Advisor Program at a local non-profit in El Salvador. Rather than just paying the bills, Isidro realized that this job was a dream he had been praying for all his life.

Isidro’s journey to ENLACE started as far back as High School. At that time, he wasn’t a Christian and had no intention of spending his life to help others. He was no stranger to being poor and saw his studies as a way to get out of poverty and make something of himself. However, after being invited to church by a few classmates, Isidro began to sense a profound change in his heart. Within six months of attending church and experiencing God’s presence there, his entire perspective about himself and those around him was transformed. As a result, he gave his life to follow Christ and began to take notice of those in need around him; their poverty, their addictions, their bereft experience of life without God. Christ’s love, like the unseen pull of gravity, began to draw him towards people rather than away.

The change in perspective meant that his studies were no longer about him. He wanted a vocation that served others and impacted people instead of a career that starred himself. His desire to study both agronomy and theology bloomed from this distinct outlook, and he began to serve the poor as pastor and agronomer. Even so, Isidro wasn’t sure how God would use all his skills and abilities together. To most people—and to most job situations—his skills seemed comically unrelated.

Isidro giving advice at a new home garden in AbelinesENLACE hired Isidro as a church coach for the extremely poor and remote region of Abelines in June of 2008. ENLACE and three local church partners had been working there together since 1997. Along with a basic need for curative health care, electricity and infrastructure, many residents suffered from acute malnutrition, underscoring the need for a better diet. The use of home gardens has transformed this community’s health irrevocably, and agriculture—even on this small scale—is as important to churches’ outreach programs as is anything preached from the pulpit. As God knew, a church coach with training in both theology and agronomy is a perfect fit.

After a year of Isidro and the team’s toil, prayer and dedication, there are now 11 new partners in this region. Regarding this growth Isidro said,

The Good News is not just a matter of words and theory, but of God’s love and compassion in action. The opportunity to work with ENLACE was the moment that all the roads came together.

Click here to see the Spring Newsletter highlighting the Abelines area

Click here to see a photo gallery of recent housing recipients in the Abelines area

sometimes it takes 7 years and a lot of friends to flip a switch

But before we tell that story, we need to shout and hoop and holler. There is electricity in Abelines! Real power lines and switches and no need for car batteries or generators. Honest to goodness electricity in Abelines! Praise God and hot diggity!

OK, now let’s think about electricity. In the US, electricity is assumed. So much so, that most of us never think of the real value of electricity. Sure light bulbs, TV and computers are great, but electricity is so much more than that.

Electricity has been a significant goal of the Abelines region for the last seven years . In rural El Salvador electricity means medicines can be refrigerated—so more people can have access to better healthcare. It also means that some families can purchase and store things such as dairy products and meats —meaning potential for better nutrition. An electric stove could replace the open fires women cook on that contribute to pulmonary problems and deforestation in the area. And of course, light offers a little more time in the day to do homework, wrap up chores, etc. Electricity is more than a means to evening entertainment—it can greatly improve health and quality of life .

It has been a long road, and the members of the community have worked hard to be able to flip a switch and see light flow into a room. Traveling along that road together, each visitor and each time ENLACE staff has been able to offer support, the folks in Abelines believed a little more strongly that they had the resources they needed to find solutions to the needs of the community. Like a drop in a bucket, each prayer, shovel full of dirt, and community meeting contributed to the wellspring of transformation in Abelines. We have seen this transformation in the health committee as it created greater awareness of health issues and better access to healthcare at the clinic. We have also seen transformed relationships as they served one another.

Pastor Victorio recently commented on their motivations over the years, “Well, first of all the key is found in the love of God, you must be covered with the love of God and then you can feel...the need of others. You must feel the love of God—that God is in you and you are in Him. This is how we got more involved and begin to help more in our community. This is one of the factors that motivates us. Also ENLACE collaborates with us, through training we find the words of encouragement to keep going.” And when people continue together amazing things can happen—like better health, better access to food, better access to education and even electricity along a dirt road in El Salvador.

The illuminated light bulb here marks a great success for this community, and we ask you to join us in a prayer of thanksgiving for God’s continued presence and blessing in the communities of Abelines. And thanks to everyone that has contributed a drop of love in this process of community transformation.

Read Reina’s quote to hear a little more about Abelines from a member of the health committee. Or to see some recent photos of Abelines, visit photo albums for teams from Church at Briargate and South Hills Corona.

Change We Can Believe In: Victorio, Reina and Umberto Respond From Abelines

As I talk with those interested in international development, I’m often asked why ENLACE is different. While I believe that there are many great organizations out there doing God’s work, ENLACE has a distinct church-focused, community-transformational approach. This approach understands that poverty and injustice are relational before material. In other words, broken relationships are at the root of poverty. If poverty was simply a lack of material resources, then the obvious answer would be to input significant resources. The majority of the time, introducing resources without working towards relational change, doesn't work. ENLACE’s community transformation approach understands that relationships must be restored for lasting change to occur. In Abelines, a community we have walked with since 1999, ENLACE has seen that it is only God’s power that has transformed people’s hearts, enabling them to respond effectively to their neighbors, their community’s resources, and outside donations. I recently visited a church meeting there. Here are some of the things I heard.

 
Pastor Victorio Paz

Victorio Paz, pastor of Abelines church, said, “Many churches have a doctrine that separates them from the world. And before we didn’t have to and weren’t supposed to communicate with non-Christians. Through our trainings with ENLACE, we began to wake up to a deeper meaning of the Word. We now know it is our calling to show love to others. I have become a better friend to the community...We now feel the needs of others. Now, if there is a need in the community and I ask people to help, I can have 50 people ready to help within minutes... The community trusts in us and has confidence in what we preach and say. Before, when we preached it was a message that split people apart, but now we build people up.”

Reina with her son Gerson

Reina de Membreno, church leader and health committee member said, “Part of the way we preach the gospel is simply by paying for the medical care of people who can’t afford it…We are now more united as a community.”

Umberto Martinez , church leader, when asked about what changes he has seen in the community, he responded emphatically. “First of all, there is so much less illness! It seemed that people used to line up for kilometers to see the doctor because they were always sick… Now there is improved health in the area, and the church has been a part of it all. The people see the response of the church and they understand the leadership the church has gained through service.

“We’ve had experience with other organizations. [They] meet with us, promote their projects, and they leave. ENLACE has stayed with us.”

When asked what they would do if ENLACE were to leave, Victorio Paz responded, “We would continue on the path in front of us. The way one is taught is the way one continues forward. As long as our church is here, the progress won’t come to an end.”

JANUARY MEDICAL TRIP TO ABELINES

The first mission team of 2008, nine folks from the Colorado Springs area, went to our most remote community, Abelines, January 4-12 to provide medical, pediatric, optical and dental care to hundreds of community members. The dentist pulled 180 rotten teeth! This is important because in an area that lacks immediate medical care, an infected molar can lead to serious illness, even death. So, what might seem like basic care in the states, can actually be life-sustaining here.

Seven of the nine team members were return visitors—some were on their 4^th trip since 2002. All were impressed to see how one small church continues to serve and transform their community. They have seen first-hand great changes in the health and lifestyles of the people, not to mention improved roads, clean water, latrines and healthier stoves (in many homes). The Abelines Health Committee and the local church helped organize the visit.

You can hear about some of the changes in Abelines directly from Blanca and Elena, original members of the Abelines health committee. In this interview, they share how the changes have impacted them personally, and what they have seen in their community thanks to God’s hand through their local church, the ENLACE staff and through mission teams like our nine friends from Colorado. This year the leaders at the Abelines Assembly of God will work with the ENLACE community advisors to train two other local churches along with all the initiatives they have planned. Click here to see the interview.

CLICK HERE to see photos from the week.

CLINIC EXPANSION INAUGURATION IN ABELINES

The churches and community of Abelines celebrated the completion of the expansion of their clinic facilities recently. Representatives from five different churches as well as the mayor's office and local police force were present to give their blessings to a building which is almost five times as big as the original one room clinic. The church and community take much pride in these facilities as it is an initiative which they have all been behind over the past five years. The new facilities include an expanded space for seeing patients on a regular basis, two lodging rooms for visiting medical teams or others to stay, as well as a large common area for community meetings and health committee training seminars.

Pastor Miguel Duran from Las Delicias and Pastor Marco Melara from San Jose El Naranjo (other ENLACE partner churches) also made the long trek to Abelines for the first time in order to celebrate with Pastor Victorio. In addition, the three pastors took the opportunity to meet with ENLACE's church and community advisors to iron out their strategic plans in their communities for the upcoming years.

Please take a minute to view the photos from the inauguration day by clicking on the image below.

pastors victorio, marco and miguel in abelines

NEW ABELINES INTERVIEWS

HEALTHY COMMUNITIES INTERVIEW IN ABELINES- Blanca and Elena, original members of the Abelines health committee, tell what they have learned over the years and how it has affected the health of their community.

CHURCH AND COMMUNITY INTERVIEW IN ABELINES- church leader Isabel Romero and pastor Victorio Paz of the Abelines Assembly of God church describe how five years of training and biblical reflection through ENLACE's church and community program has impacted their church and community.