Updates and Improvements from our Medical Clinic
WRITTEN BY EMILY TUTTLE
In addition to caring for the children placed in our homes, Casa Bernabé is committed to investing in the physical health and wellbeing of our local community. Our medical clinic is one of our main outreach opportunities to meet the needs of the families who live near our campus, including many who send their kids to school at Casa Bernabé. Healthcare in Guatemala can be expensive and hard to access, so we open our medical and dental clinics to local kids and families to provide them with a standard of care they might otherwise not be able to afford.
This year, for the first time since the Covid pandemic closed down medical services across the country, Doctor Tabitha, our on campus doctor, set a goal of reopening our medical outreach program. Cornerstone Baptist Church from Morton, IL worked alongside our clinic staff to host our first medical outreach day since the pandemic. They saw over 200 patients, providing physicals and evaluating their overall health. Using several of the school classrooms, they rotated through stations covering medical history, vital signs, vision/hearing/nasal check ups, dermatological assessments, and respiratory and heart screenings. Each patient was given an overall evaluation and a followup plan for anyone who needs ongoing care from local doctors.
Finally, our clinic has been undergoing some much needed repairs to prepare it to launch into full service again. Several of the recent mission teams that have visited Casa Bernabé have been instrumental in helping us prepare the clinic to serve at its full potential. Cornerstone Baptist Church and Mercy Hill Church came on back to back trips and completely replaced the clinic's roof. The existing tiles were repurposed to provide roofing materials for families in need in Guatemala City, and the clinic now has a roof that will not leak during the long rainy season. Heritage Christian Academy followed those teams by painting the clinic inside and outside to refresh it for the new year.
We are so thankful to have amazing teams of people willing to serve in this way. We're also thankful for our network of financial and prayer supporters who enable our staff to continue doing the hard work of providing holistic care for the kids who need it most. It cannot be exaggerated what a team effort it requires to effectively do the ministry God has called us all to.
One of the recent teams, Cornerstone Baptist Church, did an amazing job of keeping their church back home updated during their time at Casa Bernabé. In addition to their roofing and medical projects, they had specific team members dedicated to taking photos and videos to send a daily email to their prayer supporters. Please enjoy one of their video updates detailing the clinic outreach and roofing project.
