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Scholarship Program|ABC
Foundation MET|Medical/Dental teams|Surgical Clinic |
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Health Talents works to financially support the following programs:
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HTI's ministry has been working in what is known as the "coastal area" of Western Guatemala since 1990. We support a network of clinics in the Suchitepequez Department in villages with such picturesque names as Flores Costa Cuca, San Basilio, Palmira, and San Andres Villaseca. The majority of people in this area are of Mayan descent and have very little access to health care. The care provided by Dr. Walter Sierra and Dr. David Lux is holistic in nature and they make every effort to meet the wide range of patient needs, including physical, mental, social and spiritual. During the course of their daily clinics, they also identify patients in need of surgery.
Clinica Ezell serves as our point of operation for all of our surgical teams. The dormitory houses all the visiting teams, and the surgical clinics are conducted here. The clinic is also used for health promoter training and community development classes. |
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Dr. Lisa and Kemmel Dunham joined HTI’s medical evangelism team in 2005 and moved to Chichicastenango in January of 2006 to replicate the work being done on the coast. Following the same pattern of going to remote villages, they, too, will treat patients medically and be on the lookout for those patients who need surgery.
In addition, they will spearhead the VHE program: Volunteer Health Evangelists. This is an important aspect of HTI’s overall ministry because it comprises the educational component of our work. Church leaders in participating villages have agreed to select volunteers from among their membership to serve as “community educators/health promoters.” These volunteers will receive no pay for their participation, being motivated only by their desire to improve the health of their communities. Over a several month period, they will study various elements of the curriculum that will include physical examination of a patient, good hygiene practices, spiritual topics and a host of other immediately applicable topics that they will then share with members of their communities. Dr. Lisa and Kemmel Dunham were joined by Dr. Josefina Lux in October of 2006 and Sheri Kretzschmar in February of 07. We now have two mobile medical teams operating in the Guatemala highlands. HTI has high hopes that this program will increase the level of understanding and practice of basic health and spiritual components of their lives. |
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The purpose of this scholarship fund is to encourage Christian men and women in Central America to become qualified as licensed health care providers, e.g., doctors, nurses, dentists, technicians, etc. The fund will pay the costs of a university education and living expenses in their home country for qualified students in Central America. Upon graduation, they will serve with Health Talents, one year for each year of scholarship, to meet the health care needs of their fellow countrymen.
The average annual cost for a student is approximately $4,000. This covers the cost of tuition at a public university, books and miscellaneous education expenses, and food and lodging if the student doesn't live at home. HTI currently has four Charles E. Bates scholars in the scholarship program studying medicine in Guatemala. Nidian Patricia Poz & Nehemias Lopez Yes are in their fourth year, Nelson Julio Rosas in his second year and Joel Tomas Riquiac has applied for his first year and is waiting for confirmation. Ruben Romano has completed his formal classroom studies and is scheduled to join our ministry team in 2011 after providing the Nicaraguan government two years of required service. (Click on this link to see photos of our four medical students.) Additionally, we have one Charles E. Bates scholar entering her first year of dental school. Aura Marina Alvarez Osario (Pictured Below)  |
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New to the Charles E. Bates Scholarship Program is the Deborah G. Rivas Scholarship for students studying medicine in El Salvador. Norma Tisset Romero is our first recipient and she has already been accepted into medical school for 2009. (Pictured Below)
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The Sherman Scholarship was named in honor of the many years of dedicated service by Magda and Steve Sherman to the people of Guatemala. It is designed to provide opportunities for former ABC students and others in the church in Guatemala to attain a higher education. The Sherman Scholarship is different from the Bates program in that students do not have to major in medically-oriented topics. By supporting children in their educational pursuits, we hope to help them break the cycle of poverty that has enslaved so many Christians and results in poverty-stricken churches.
We currently have eight Sherman scholars, Daniel Xinum Saquic, Hector Francisco Quiacan Petzey, Juan Rafael Leon Lopez, Magdalena Txep Sac, Manuel Chan Xinum, Norma Elizabeth Castillo Sapalu, Sebastian Chan Sen & Alex Gonzalez. Please click on the link to see photos or brief biography with field of study on the 09 Sherman Scholars. |
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A scholarship program for nursing students has been endowed by the Bennie and McDonnel families. We currently have two students, Alicia Janet Gonzalez Televario who is entering her second year of study and Silvia Natividad Tzoc Joj who is entering her first year of study. (Alicia is pictured below with Nancy Bennie.)
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HTI sponsors an adopt-a-child program that aids poverty-stricken families of the Church of Christ in Guatemala. Sponsors in the U.S. provide $30/month per child to provide food, clothing, and school supplies. Sponsors receive a photo and biographical sketch of the child they commit to sponsor. The children write letters to their sponsors periodically throughout the year, and sponsors can write or visit their child in Guatemala if they desire. There are over 650 children from twenty-six congregations currently enrolled in this program. Again, the beauty of the program is that it focuses on the "whole" child by providing food and clothing plus activities to encourage individual growth in multiple areas--spiritually, educationally, and socially. If you would like to sponsor a child, contact Barbara Barnes at bybarnht@aol.com. |
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A vital aspect of Health Talents is the MET (Medical Evangelism Training) program. This specialized six-week program provides short term on-site mission experience and instruction for Christians considering medical missions. In May each year pre-med, pre-dentistry, nursing, missions and other medically or mission oriented students receive classroom instruction in language and culture, missiology, health skills, and missiomedicology. They also receive hands-on field training, working side by side with full time medical evangelists as they carry out appropriate activities. Students help with such things as immunization campaigns, community development projects, and primary care mobile clinics in remote Mayan villages. The primary aim of this program is to encourage students to consider medical evangelism as a valid avenue of service for their lives, either as a full time participant or as an active supporter. Health Talents has sent students
to Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic for this program.
Typically, depending on the number of sites available in a given
year, 10-12 students are selected nationwide. Preference will be given to those university students who are juniors and seniors and members of the Church of Christ.
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HTI sponsors 3 U.S. staffed short-term mobile medical/dental clinics each year, 2 to Guatemala and 1 to Managua, Nicaragua. The teams vary in size from 25-40, including physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, optometrists, dental hygienists, and related health personnel. Spanish speakers are especially welcome! They visit Indian villages that are often located in remote areas to provide primary health care and dental services. Trip fee is $600 plus the cost of your plane ticket.(Effective 1/1/2010) for Guatemala and $700 for Nicaragua, with a $200 non-refundable deposit required at the time of reservation. We will contact you upon receipt of your application to see if you'd like us to go ahead and purchase your plane ticket at that time. We often find better deals if we make purchases right away. Should we do so, you will need to promptly send in payment to cover the entire cost of your flight. The trip fee balance is due thirty days from your scheduled departure. Once we purchase your plane ticket, we will invoice you for the balance due. This is typically done forty days prior to departure! Interested in participating? Fill out our trip reservation form.
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HTI developed and operates the first Church of Christ surgical facility in the western hemisphere. In February of 2002 we dedicated a brand new modern facility called Clinica Ezell. It consists of three surgical suites, a 50-bed ward, clinic exam rooms, pharmacy, lab, and X-ray room. Adjacent to the surgical center is a dormitory that houses 44 visiting team members, a large commercial kitchen and dining area. Nine surgical teams travel to Guatemala each year to perform cataract surgery, hernia repair, hysterectomies, and cleft palate repair on the Mayan Indian population living in the area. The cost of participating in a surgical clinic is $600 plus the cost of your plane ticket.(Effective 1/1/2010) for Guatemala and $700 for Nicaragua, with a $200 non-refundable deposit required at the time of reservation. We will contact you upon receipt of your application to see if you'd like us to go ahead and purchase your plane ticket at that time. We often find better deals if we make purchases right away. Should we do so, you will need to promptly send in payment to cover the entire cost of your flight. The trip fee balance is due thirty days from your scheduled departure. Once we purchase your plane ticket, we will invoice you for the balance due. This is typically done forty days prior to departure! Typical Surgery Team
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As a key component to our ministry and a compliment to the work of our Director of Evangelism, Baldemar Ruiz, we host semi-annual, week-long evangelism training sessions. We invite Spanish or Quiche speaking Latin American Church of Christ leaders and evangelists to our facility in Montellano, Guatemala, or to the Paxot Segundo, Guatemala to come on a Monday evening and receive three days of intense Bible study before returning home on Friday and putting into practice all they have learned. We provide meals, lodging, training and resource material, speakers, and a structure for sharing and learning.
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