We have had annual medical teams come to do medical outreach in the mountain villages for 20 plus years! The team would usually leave their leftover meds to allow us to help people when there was a need. We decided to begin a medical clinic under the ministry; to address these needs when people’s health issues arose throughout the year. Ana is our nurse that oversees our clinic; so we limit our outreach to chronic everyday issues but also with the desire to have prayer/counseling available to make sure that every patient that comes to us is shown the love of God and respect that they deserve. This was an issue sometimes for the people from the mountains, as they sought medical assistance and not treated the same as town people. I’m happy to say that that has improved over the years; but there used to be some distinct differences in the quality of treatment and for that reason we began our clinic outreaches
In 2004 medical care began. In 2007 we added dental care and in 2008 we added optical care. In 2012 a program was launched to provide baby formula to infants and powdered milk to toddlers that were not old enough to put into our Embrace (child sponsorship) program. A big reason that we keep our clinic in operation is to provide free medical/dental benefits to all of our Embrace children. The clinic is open 3 days a week to give medical attention to our Embrace children and gives cleanings, fillings and extractions for their dental needs.
Our clinic staff includes Ana, Miriam (our receptionist), Dr. Xiomara (our dentist) and Adriana (our dental assistant). The clinic only charge 10Q (the equivalent of $1.25) for a medical consultation and medicine is provided at no cost from what we have available. Consequently, we have to supplement the cost to keep things in operation. We run a store (called The Palms) that carries children’s clothing, hygiene products, toys and miscellaneous items. The store is open to the public and is stocked with clothes that are mostly from the US. Our Embrace children receive coupons on their birthdays and Christmas and they use their coupons at the clinic store; having one arm of the ministry help to keep another in operation as well as providing the children with medical/dental care. We are always looking for donations of baby formula (or finances to purchase), children’s underwear, vitamins, supplements etc. If you are interested is trying to offer some assistance; please communicate with us at nancy@servantministries.net.
