David, Samuel, and Roberto Alvarez are
evangelists, community activists, and entrepreneurs. In 1982 David started his
ministry (Centro Cristiano Cultural de Guatemala: cccguatemala.com) in his garage as a young man
and hasn’t looked back. He has worked a
number of jobs to support CCCG, most recently an advertising business, but
along the way he worked as a bombadero (firefighter). He built a church in the middle of a
gang-ridden neighborhood and feeds children breakfast if they agree to go to
school that day. He developed an
Oceanside retreat near Monterrico so these same kids could escape the city for
a few weeks every summer. Photo: Roberto (right) working with his David's son Eric inside the clinic.
Enter a Puyallup firefighter who came
to Guatemala to teach bomberos paramedic skills. When his translator didn’t show he asked if
anyone knew English; David raised his
hand and said he spoke a little. They've been friends since. Photo: Front entrance to the clinic. Under construction on right will be open air waiting area.
Enter Donald Van
Nimwegen, a Seattle anesthesiologist who has a long history of
overseas volunteer work that did not end with retirement--many of his days now
spent in a large basement room donated by Group Health where he collects,
sorts, and packs donated medical supplies for various volunteer groups
including Healing The Children and Amigos de Salud. Firefighter introduced Don
to David during a paramedic training mission that turned into a Hurricane Mitch
rescue mission. Don then introduced
David to Jennifer Hooch during an ENT trip.
Jennifer is a family practice doctor with an interest in public health
and lots of energy.
Photo: Work progressing on the clinic's outdoor waiting area. I suspect it will also be a thatched roof.
Add about $40,000 from Rotary groups
in the Puget Sound and the result is a new clinic in Monterrico, the site of my
overseas project #10.
No comments:
Post a Comment