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We were in Abelines last week with CHIMPS, a medical brigade from Seattle, Washington. They worked out of the local clinic and alongside Doctor Daniel, the doctor employed by ENLACE. People walked as many as four hours to be seen by these US doctors. On average we were seeing 120 people a day.
Most of the patients had intestinal illnesses due to poor sanitation and contaminated water. A majority were also suffering from aches and pains due to strenuous physical labor. The doctors were prescribing medicine for these problems as well as for anemia and diabetes. On the preventive side, the doctors gave fluoride treatments and distributed vitamins. In addition to the medical team, a professional hairstylist from the city was set up in the clinic and offering free-haircuts. So many people were lined up that Shane and Isidro, an Enlace employee, started giving haircuts as well. We helped wherever it was needed, mostly assisting with intakes and “charlas”, which are educational talks aimed at preventing many of the problems we were seeing.
Abelines is located in the Department of Morazán, the region most affected by the civil war. Here are some of the most impoverished and traumatized communities in El Salvador. Evidence of the people’s struggle can be seen in their sun-soaked, calloused skin and tired, somewhat hardened faces. 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 US 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.
