Healthcare re-formed

Dr. Juan Vaca Yanchapaxi, an Episcopalian and leader on the social-outreach committee of Ecuador's Central diocese, helps manage the just-opened clinic, a cooperative project of his nearby congregation, Cristo Liberador (Christ the Liberator), and Servilab, a private company specializing in preventative medicine.

"It's a model for other congregations to follow," Vaca said in Spanish, joining in conversation with Puerto Rico Bishop David Alvarez, who helped guide a site tour for fellow members of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council, which met in Ecuador February 11-14.

"It is very important for the U.S. church to recognize the wideness of our church," Alvarez said, citing the connectedness of Episcopalians across the church's 110 dioceses in 16 nations and territories. In the developing world, he added, "we minister with far fewer resources and financial support, yet effectively."

Alvarez said that his diocese's San Lucas Episcopal hospital system -- Puerto Rico's third-largest employer anchored by three major medical centers -- was glad to offer resources with the clinic as part of a companion relationship emerging between the dioceses of Puerto Rico, Ecuador Central (based in Quito) and Ecuador Litoral (based in Guayaquil).

"We are very thankful," said Vaca, displaying a cabinet full of medicines made possible through the support of Episcopalians in the Diocese of Indianapolis, noting that, because of these gifts, health care is available for people who previously had none.

With the lab now open, different doctors, primarily volunteers, will visit every week to do specialty care, Vaca said.

Commitment to outreach
Completing a dental clinic downstairs from the lab is next in Cristo Liberador's building project, which also includes a children's daycare center. Cement masons worked to complete upper floors as the congregation's vicar, the Rev. Raul Guaillas, described the congregation's commitment to outreach.

"Here there is a lot to do and a lot of possibilities for growth," Guaillas said. "Here the church is offering a different alternative in the area." With Cristo Liberador serving as a bridge between local Roman Catholics and other Protestants, he said, "we are in the middle serving the community."

Also speaking at the clinic, architect Javier Zapata displayed renderings of a community plan to build a central park and recreation area around a similar medical facility to be developed with an existing Episcopal church in the neighboring La Mana district.

The plan will use local stones and other materials, reinforcing the contributions of local residents to the project, Zapata said.

This helps build "a natural sense of ownership," said Delaware priest Mark Harris, an Executive Council member among the visitors.

Ecuador Central's diocesan bishop, Wilfrido Ramos-Orench, said the shared spirit of mission within the diocese was evident in the programs of Cristo Liberador, where Executive Council visitors also met with youth group members and toured a savings agency providing micro-loans of $20 to $200 to qualifying applicants -- a helpful resource in Ecuador's economy crippled, as widely reported, by national debt.

The congregation, formed about 25 years ago, has some 80 members drawn from within the 150,000 residents of Zona 8, one of Quito's several districts that fan out against mountaintops reaching an altitude of 14,000 feet. Situated along the earth's equator, the city takes its name from early words for center (qui) and earth (to).

Caring for the region's youngest residents is the daily work of the children's day-care center, opened last October by Cristo Liberador in the same complex as the clinic. About $30,000 in work remains to complete the shared facility, vicar Guaillas said.

Four-year-old Genesis Aboleta was first to welcome the Executive Council visitors to the children's central classroom.

She climbed into Alvarez's arms as he translated into English the greetings offered by program director Rocio Recalde. Recalde described the tutoring, meals and other activities provided to some 46 children from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays on an estimated annual budget of $19,000. Many are children of single mothers, and some are Colombian refugees, Recalde said.

"Our vision," she said, "is to give the people -- who are poor -- the best that we can."