Reports from Ecuador

FYI: Given the unreliable internet situation, we have decided to split up blogging responsibilities so that our entries do not overlap.  To read about our experience in its entirety, visit ecuador.blogs.rice.edu.  Thanks for reading!

After the weekend’s introduction to Quito, Amanda and I spent Tuesday and Wednesday working at Fundación Futuro’s central office. When we arrived on Tuesday morning, the amazing María Alicia explained to us the foundation’s mission and history, which would be essential for us to understand in order to best contribute to their work.

The foundation was started by Grupo Futuro—a collection of five companies in Ecuador including Tecniseguros, which shares its office with the foundation. The foundation originated out of the conviction that business has an obligation to not only producing quality goods and services, but also to give back to the community in order to protect the environment and improve the conditions of marginalized populations.

Today, the foundation supports medical clinics in six different rural, indigenous communities and two neighborhoods in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s biggest city. Each clinic is run by a network of doctors, nurses and health promoters who work together to provide general medicine, dental, gynecology, psychiatry and pharmaceutical services to patients at a minimal cost.  The foundation also supports educational and microfinance projects.  María Alicia emphasized to us that the foundation exists to support the needs and wishes of the community rather than impose a paternalistic agenda, and as such collaborates with community leaders in order to develop requested services and does charge a nominal fee for medical care.

Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday we worked on a promotional campaign for hand-washing to be used by the health promoters. Many people in the communities the foundation works with don’t have public health programs in place that teach such important hygiene habits. Luckily, I had worked on a hygiene education project for my BIOE 260 class, and had these resources available. So far, we´ve developed a series of activities for children that convey the importance of washing your hands as well as promotional posters for the clinics and other public places.

As we were designing these materials, it came to our attention that the lack of hand-washing is only part of the problem—none of the indigenous communities have access to potable water. I mentioned to María Alicia the SODIS (the protocol that disinfects water after 6 hours of sun exposure), and she suggested that we do a trial in Planchaloma, where they’re currently conduction a water quality study.

Once we make the final revisions to the hygiene materials, we’ll begin a similar project for recycling. Because many indigenous communities on recently began to use plastic goods, they have not yet implemented a recycling program, something the foundation would like to work with them to change.

So far the work has been really interesting and we’ve felt useful.  Hopefully this continues as we begin to visit the communities and work directly with doctors and patients!