International Projects
The Solvang Rotary teamed up once again with the Linda Vista Foundation to do some philanthropic work in Guatemala. Complete with eleven members of our team our objectives were to serve the impoverished and indigenous people by building a two room shelter for a family in Antigua, providing dentistry work by Dr. Art Kaslow and Dr. Bobby Brugnone and their assistants, Linda Johansen and Jan Clevenger, drilling a water well in the very remote Village of Retalhuleu which is almost 6 hours from Guatemala city, and teaching the Village children and Mothers about oral hygiene, sanitation, nutrition and health and well being.
Those participating in this year’s trip were President and CEO of Linda Vista Foundation Stu Gildred, Linda Johansen Solvang Rotary International Chair, Solvang Rotary members Dr. Art Kaslow, Dr. Bobby Brugnone, Steve Palmer and his wife Lisa, Chris Parker with wife Lori, Joe Brown, Jan Clevenger and Allan Jones. All participants of the group use work vacation time, pay for their own trip and expenses which also includes funding towards all of the appropriate projects we commit to as well as working on each project until completion. It is difficult and demanding both physically and emotionally but the personal rewards are many, so heartfelt and utterly feed and fuel your soul. The Solvang Rotary Foundation also committed $5000 towards this project to help defray expenses as the drilling water well project is $8400.
Once you commit yourself to helping the impoverished, it definitely becomes one of the most gratifying things you will ever do, and that will always be an important part of your life. There are many tears of frustration but more tears of pure joy because you see the impact that you can make by giving and sharing of yourself. You validate the lives of those that you are helping and let them know they are of value and matter and that you absolutely care about them and their well being. You aren’t giving them a hand out, you are giving them a hand up and HOPE. It is a small and easy gift to give and one that fills my heart with so much joy and purpose.
It truly takes a Village and team of like - minded people. Dr. Kaslow and Dr. Brugnone donated dental supplies and instruments, and Dr. Katherine Streegan donated tooth brushes and toothpaste for 100 children and June Martin, Sr. Philanthropy Officer of the SYV Cottage Hospital Foundation sent 50 fans for the women in the remote villages to help with the heat and to keep insects off of their babies. Rotarians Ellen Albertoni, Tresha Sell and Dave Dennee also each contributed $100 which was used to buy paint and supplies for the house build, additional school supplies and toys for Suenos, the nonprofit private school for the children of indigenous people that have moved to Antigua for more economic opportunity as street vendors. Our remaining $150 was donated to Potters House which is another nonprofit Christ-centered organization that works with the extreme poverty found in Guatemala City’s trash dump. These people actually live and work at the horrendous toxic and filthy City dump extracting anything that is of use to sell and recycle to feed and care for their family. This area is crime ridden and even the authorities avoid going there, especially at night.
Our philanthropic trip began January 19 with a chartered Van from Solvang to Los Angeles with mimosas and delicious Danish pastry to help us gear up for the 5 ½ hour direct flight on Avianca Airlines to Guatemala City. We took an extra suitcase filled with about 80 pounds of supplies that we were able to distribute and use.
Upon arrival into Guatemala City, we secured our two rental Vans and made our way to the Marriott Hotel arriving just before 10PM. Early the following morning we visited several nonprofit organizations in Guatemala City. We visited Potters House and Creamos which both serve the extremely impoverished communities of the Guatemala City’s garbage dump in areas of education, health and nutrition, micro enterprise, adult education with child care and community development. From physical to spiritual with mental transformation, they empower the poor across Guatemala to make changes in their own lives and also their communities. Both are very worthwhile organizations with facilities in close proximity to the City Dump. They offer a clean facility, medical and dental aid, and a safe haven for children and adults to get a limited education. The power of these two organizations is that they offer HOPE that it is possible to make a better life for yourself and your family.
After our site visits we made the 1 ½ hour drive divided in two rental Vans to Antigua which would be our home for the next three nights. Drivers Stu Gildred and Dr. Bobby Brugnone communicate with each other by walkie-talkies operated in one van by Allan Jones and the other van by Dr. Art Kaslow. It is crazy but it works, and we have lots of comical dialog and jokes between the cars all day long to keep us alert, on task with directions, laughing and entertained while driving to our next work site.
We stayed at Common Hope in Antigua for three nights which is nonprofit promoting hope and opportunity in Guatemala by partnering with children, families and communities who want to participate in a process of development to improve their lives through education, health care, housing and family development. They work to end the cycle of poverty for children in Guatemala through a holistic, relationship-based model. While education is at the heart of their work, they believe a comprehensive approach to human development is critical for children and families to reach their full potential.
After our site visits we made the 1 ½ hour drive divided in two rental Vans to Antigua which would be our home for the next three nights. Drivers Stu Gildred and Dr. Bobby Brugnone communicate with each other by walkie-talkies operated in one van by Allan Jones and the other van by Dr. Art Kaslow. It is crazy but it works, and we have lots of comical dialog and jokes between the cars all day long to keep us alert, on task with directions, laughing and entertained while driving to our next work site.
We stayed at Common Hope in Antigua for three nights which is nonprofit promoting hope and opportunity in Guatemala by partnering with children, families and communities who want to participate in a process of development to improve their lives through education, health care, housing and family development. They work to end the cycle of poverty for children in Guatemala through a holistic, relationship-based model. While education is at the heart of their work, they believe a comprehensive approach to human development is critical for children and families to reach their full potential.
The compound facility was extraordinary behind closed and 24 hour guarded gates. The accommodations were excellent with a shower and restroom facilities and our own stocked kitchen for us to make our breakfast. At the work site a local lunch was usually provided and the team enjoyed a few nights out at excellent local restaurants as well as staff prepared dinners at the compound. Everyone stayed healthy with no stomach issues which can be an issue when travelling to certain countries if not cautious.
At Common Hope the dentists performed a full day of severe dental services pulling many abscessed teeth. The dental clinic was top notch and dentists from the US work year round there and have stocked the facility with excellent equipment. They have teams that go down every month or every other month to this area, and next year we will definitely work three days in the dental clinic as there is a tremendous need for dental care for the adults as well as the children in this underserved community.
Through Common Hope we also built the 2 room shelter in an impoverished area in Antigua. It was an amazing experience as we were able to meet the family members destined for the shelter and the husband worked side by side with us on the build site. We even provided mint green paint and supplies for the family to paint their new shelter which lacks water, a bathroom facility or a kitchen. These other necessities will be outside close to the shelter in some primitive form in the dirt.
At Common Hope the dentists performed a full day of severe dental services pulling many abscessed teeth. The dental clinic was top notch and dentists from the US work year round there and have stocked the facility with excellent equipment. They have teams that go down every month or every other month to this area, and next year we will definitely work three days in the dental clinic as there is a tremendous need for dental care for the adults as well as the children in this underserved community.
Through Common Hope we also built the 2 room shelter in an impoverished area in Antigua. It was an amazing experience as we were able to meet the family members destined for the shelter and the husband worked side by side with us on the build site. We even provided mint green paint and supplies for the family to paint their new shelter which lacks water, a bathroom facility or a kitchen. These other necessities will be outside close to the shelter in some primitive form in the dirt.
Before leaving Antigua we visited the private nonprofit school Suenos which again teaches the indigenous children Spanish so that they can hopefully continue their education in the public schools. There are 28 different dialects of the Mayan language, so rarely can the different communities communicate with one another and they can’t speak or understand Spanish which causes a lot of issues. The vision of Suenos is to provide the educational, social and emotional tools for these children to complete primary education and to acquire a skill set to achieve some sort of economic stability. Stu Gildred sponsors a young girl name Lettie at this organization who we were able to meet last year.
Our team left promptly after our visit to Suenos for the long drive to meet up with ASOCAVIVA which is an organization based on faith and Christian principles with a main goal of providing safe drinking water to remote areas in Guatemala. ASOCAVIVA drills water wells and tries to improve the lifestyle and health of the communities. They do this by sharing their Health and hygiene programs including basic personal hygiene and water preservations. In all of these remote village there is fecal matter in the water usually past 150 feet. Clean, fresh and healthy water is a basic necessity of life and should be available to everyone.
We stay in the same local hotel as the crew, and eat breakfast and dinner with the crew at the hotel and the villagers prepare all snacks and lunch at the well dig site. The days are long waking up very early for breakfast at 5:30AM and leaving by 6:00AM. The Village is almost 1 ½ hours from the hotel, so again we navigate by walkie-talkies between the two Vans, but at least we can follow the workers trucks out to the Village on the very remote dirt roads with little to no signage. No visitors frequent these impoverished villages, so there is a lot of commotion when we all arrive.
This year the men concentrated on the well dig, and we women in the group taught classes to about 30 children in the Village as well as teaching about 30 Moms later in the day. We teach oral and personal hygiene, nutrition, health and well being, and water preservation. We teach in English so they can hear the English language spoken, and that is then translated into Spanish. This is all done with skits, song, dance, crafts and interaction with our students.
We ladies absolutely loved this experience and are all eager to go back to help another village. The children as well as the Mothers were all eager to learn and we also taught them English nursery songs and rhymes which they loved. It was a beautiful experience loving on all these beautiful children and Moms. There were a lot of tears and such warm, loving and long, heartfelt hugs when we left.
We ladies absolutely loved this experience and are all eager to go back to help another village. The children as well as the Mothers were all eager to learn and we also taught them English nursery songs and rhymes which they loved. It was a beautiful experience loving on all these beautiful children and Moms. There were a lot of tears and such warm, loving and long, heartfelt hugs when we left.
The water well came in very late that night to our relief. Usually there is a communal celebration with the Villagers, but that didn’t happen this year as the well dig was difficult with lots of sludge and volcanic rock so it took twice as long as last year to hit the water. So our team didn’t get to celebrate with the Villagers like normal concerning the water well. There is a beautiful plaque with Solvang Rotary and Linda Vista Foundation that will be put at the well site.
This year we flew to Tikal to experience this beautiful ancient site of Mayan ruins in the rainforest. Tikal is 222.4 miles of lush jungle surrounding the Mayan ceremonial center and archaeological remains of the ancient Mayan civilization. It was declared a World Heritage UNESCO site in 1979 and much of it still remains to be unearthed.
We stayed at Las Lagunas Boutique Hotel which was so amazing right on the lake and visited Monkey Island where the monkey name Margarita boarded our boat making herself at home. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at the hotel as well as in Flores and many of us did kayaking on the beautiful lake. It was a wonderful ending to a very emotional work filled week.
We cemented our friendships with nightly games of Left Right and Center on the trip and for those lucky enough to win that was $33 a game! I know all of us are much better people for having this opportunity to serve our fellow man. I know all of our hearts were touched in the most profound ways, and I know all of us will remain committed to doing philanthropic work again. It truly was a magical trip in so many ways connecting with the people of Guatemala.
We stayed at Las Lagunas Boutique Hotel which was so amazing right on the lake and visited Monkey Island where the monkey name Margarita boarded our boat making herself at home. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at the hotel as well as in Flores and many of us did kayaking on the beautiful lake. It was a wonderful ending to a very emotional work filled week.
We cemented our friendships with nightly games of Left Right and Center on the trip and for those lucky enough to win that was $33 a game! I know all of us are much better people for having this opportunity to serve our fellow man. I know all of our hearts were touched in the most profound ways, and I know all of us will remain committed to doing philanthropic work again. It truly was a magical trip in so many ways connecting with the people of Guatemala.
Solvang Rotary Club members Linda Johansen, Joe Brown and Kristan Morrison recently returned from a nine-day philanthropic trip to Nicaragua.Morrison's spouse, Glenn Morrison, a registered physician’s assistant, also joined.
While our group was small in size compared to travel groups organized in 2014 and 2015 with eight medical associates and 10 laymen, we were just as effective. We were totally committed to helping the impoverished people of Nueva Vida.
Ciudad Sandino — the most densely populated municipality in Nicaragua with 200,000 residents — was used as a "dumping ground" for refugees escaping the effects of natural disasters and violence.
Nueva Vida is one of the poorest barrios in that municipality and is home to approximately 16,000 inhabitants displaced by a hurricane over 20 years ago. The community is desolate and destitute, with sewage running down the side of dirt roads used by barefoot children playing, unaware of the dangers of bacteria and infection.
These people make do with so very little, and still share and help take care of one another. Their lives are very difficult, but they are resilient and somehow remain for the most part, happy.
We were housed at Casa Ben Linder, about 15 minutes from the clinic. The Casa is owned by Jubilee House and used for their nonprofit groups that visit and serve at the clinic.
It is traditional and quaint with beautiful murals, a courtyard and outdoor dining area. Our $85 per day per person fee included all transportation, meals, lodging, and a gracious small staff. They also shared their culture with us with a trip to the Masaya Volcano, Artisan Market, a visit with a master potter and weavers, a tour of Leon, and lastly a tour of islets of Granada.
We fit as much in as possible with work —and some play.
We again worked at the Nueva Vida Medical Clinic, in conjunction with the Jubilee House Community, which has a registered nonprofit status in the U.S. and an International Mission status in Nicaragua.
This clinic services approximately 17,000 patients a year, seeing 65 patients per day with various medical issues. They have one resident doctor and one resident dentist and rely on outside nonprofits to provide medical personnel to work at the clinic and help fund medicines and equipment.
The Solvang Rotary has been helping the clinic since 2014. And Jubilee House is the only remaining nonprofit organization left in Nueva Vida after the COVID-19 pandemic.
During our weeklong visit, our small Rotary contingency was responsible for helping 415 patients. Our MVP was certainly Glenn Morrison, who treated 72 orthopedic patients for pain. We also helped 135 patients with general medical issues, 40 patients with mental health services, and provided 51 with dental services including 47 with routine dental hygiene assistance. We ran 40 labs on patients, provided six birth control implants, 15 pap smears and eight EKGs. Wound care was also offered to one patient, a leg amputee due to diabetes.
We did several in-home care visits with a medical team, with one afternoon proving to be emotionally difficult. It is very painful to see people living in squalor to that extent. They certainly deserve better.
Our club also funded a project for 30 women with new babies. Another organization made 30 large fabric bags and the Solvang Rotary Club — its members and one of my pickle ball friends, Bobbie Westil — donated a combined amount of $2,225 to the project.
Each bag included cloth diapers, pins, baby wipes, baby socks, hats, four outfits per child, baby books and a beautiful lace fabric fan.
June Martin, of the Santa Ynez Cottage Hospital Foundation, graciously donated 100 beautiful fans which is such a luxury for the mothers as the heat and humidity at times are unbearable.
The typical fan used by residents is constructed of a four-inch piece of discarded cardboard or a piece of old, ripped fabric, about the same size. New fans were given to several elderly people and were a huge hit. We will be taking the remaining fans to Guatemala in January.
We had extra funds left over from our original project, so we paid for 20 children at the clinic to receive two teeth cleanings plus fluoride treatments in a year. We also paid for 30 medical in-home care providers to service 5,000 people per month with their $1,000 monthly medical tab.
We visited several projects we've helped fund over the years with the Santa Barbara Sunrise Rotary Club. We have been providing clean drinking water to a village of 563 families (approximately 3,000 people) through a Rotary Global grant and in partnership with several Rotary Clubs and nonprofits that total $20,243,621.67.
We also helped establish several self-sustaining tilapia fish aquaponic systems where families raising tilapia for both selling and eating are supported. The fish help filter and clean water that is eventually used for watering gardens and produce. This program has been very successful, offering participants a viable work income.
We then met with hospital officials at a new, state-of- the-art hospital, and visited with city officials and members of our sister Rotary club, Ciudad Sandino Club. We also visited with a water board district, comprised of volunteers who supervised and collected payments for the Rotary water well we helped supply. It was a very successful trip in all regards.
I would like to thank my fellow Rotarians and Glenn for taking time off from work, spending their own money to participate, and remaining dedicated to the people of Nicaragua.
We all feel very grateful for this opportunity to serve our fellow man, and, in some small way, make a difference. I would also like to thank Becca of Jubilee House and her staff for taking such good care of us, especially when dealing with family issues of a hospitalized daughter with Dengue Fever.
We will be back!
The Solvang Rotary recently partnered with Linda Vista Foundation on a humanitarian trip to Guatemala to build water wells for the impoverished rural village of Nueva Concepcion.
The team was led by Stu Gildred, president of Linda Vista Foundation, who partnered with Solvang Rotary International Chair Linda Johansen, to ensure the success of the mission to build the wells and meet nonprofit organizations in Guatemala with whom the Rotary could partner in future projects.
Many of these nonprofit organizations have projects in place with the Linda Vista Foundation.
Our weeklong journey from Feb. 3-11 began in the early hours bound for LAX on a chartered bus complete with mimosas and delicious pastries from Olsen’s Bakery.
Our direct flight on Avianca Airlines to Guatemala City was a little over five hours and our baggage was limited to 22 pounds per person, with a carry on suit case only. In addition, we checked three extra 50-pound bags filled with clothing and dentistry supplies for donation to people and organizations in Guatemala.
We were very organized in our mission approach, dividing into two groups, each in a large van to transport suitcases and supplies.
The dental van transported Dr. Art Kaslow and Dr. Robert Brugnone (who offered dentistry services for two days), their assistants Sherry Thore and Dean Elser, to the small community of Escuintla. They saw 50 patients who received free dental care and treatments. Both dentists commented on the severe decay and lack of dental hygiene for these villagers and vowed to come back as often as possible to render further treatment.
We also had the assistance of Rolando Morales from the Escuintla Rotary Club, who helped to make all of the dentistry a reality for our team. This first van also participated in the final day of well drilling and followed up the next day with their commitments and dental obligations.
The second van consisting of Stu Gildred, Linda Johansen, Kristan and Lauren Morrison, Joe Brown, Allan Jones and Robert Klug, worked on the well-drilling project for two full days at Nueva Concepcion, a very remote village found near the end of a dirt road. Each well cost $6,000 to complete and will provide fresh, clean water to the villagers for 20-plus years.
The Solvang Rotary and all of the participants in this project paid for the first well and Linda Vista Foundation made a matching grant for the second well to be drilled at a later time.
The well crew worked under the direction of Jamie Torres and his well-drilling company and team, ASOCAVIVA. His company works with many Rotary Clubs, foundations, and nonprofit organizations to provide clean water to remote villagers. Jamie is committed to bringing fresh water to all rural villages in Guatemala, and gives so much back to the country he calls home, as well as the people he serves and loves.
He is a very dedicated man of high personal and ethical standards. He provides a teacher for children and women at all drill sites, and the curriculum and materials are provided free of cost. He also provides a beautiful bible for the women at the end of class that fits into a gorgeous little felt bag complete with jewels on the outside that each woman has the opportunity to make in class.
Nueva Concepcion has approximately 1,200 villagers and their water source was completely contaminated with fecal matter.
We drilled for two full days, finally reaching clean water at 300 feet that would be safe for the community to drink. The drilling process is hard work and requires manual labor, digging trenches, washing heavy pipes and lubing them. The process also includes feeding the pipes into a drill that pounds them into the ground. That part is slow, difficult, and very tedious.
At each new level, soil is tested for contamination until a level with healthy drinking water is reached. Each working member of the team wore a hard hat, large rubber boots, and was mostly covered with mud within a few minutes.
There were a lot of sore muscles and a few blisters, but at the end of the second day when the fresh water was finally pumping out, there was joyous chaos combined with tears from the crew, the villagers, and the children who promptly jumped right in the water to play.
Dean Elser, fellow Rotarian and photographer for our trip, was the first big kid in the water followed by many village children. It was a beautiful sight to see them all playing in crystal clear clean water!
At the same time the well was being dug, there were classes offered to the children and women in the village in a very small room that was designated as a classroom. There were close to 30 in each class, with the children meeting in the morning and the ladies in the afternoon.
Classes offered were about oral and personal hygiene, nutrition and some arts and crafts projects. Supplies were given to each participant to follow up with their hygiene at the end of class. Kristan and Lauren Morrison along with Linda Johansen aided in the classroom. A woman named Vivian who is associated with ASOCAVIVA, ran the programs that were offered with our assistance.
We all loved the experience with the children and the women getting lots of smiles and huge hugs for our efforts. The women were especially grateful as there is little opportunity for them to be fussed over — ever. They thoroughly enjoyed their class time and participation.
There were also some kitchen duties to attend to with the beautiful, brave and resilient women in the village who made two meals a day for the entire team. There was a mid-morning and afternoon meal all prepared from scratch by these amazing women. They work so hard and were up at dawn to clean, wash, cook, tend to the garden, livestock and children.
They carried in four live chickens on the second day that they killed, plucked. They threw in the meat with vegetables to make homemade empanadas and a huge pot of soup. Working in the kitchen with these lovely women was a beautiful experience as they had us participate in every way. We did draw the line at killing the chickens with a knife, but we did help to pluck them!
At the end of two days and with the completion of the water well, many dignitaries in the village came together for a blessing ceremony.
The watersite was blessed as were all of us for our hard work and efforts to financially bring this well to their village. There were lots of prayers, many different blessings, huge hugs, and lots of kisses and tears as we said goodbye to these humble, impoverished indigenous Guatemalan’s who are so resilient. They live so meagerly, but are happy and content with the little that they have. We all came to love Guatemala and the beautiful people there, and are committed to going back many times to work on additional projects, including this fall.
In between our work days, the entire team visited many nonprofit organizations that benefit from working with the Linda Vista Foundation. The outreach of the Stuart Gildred family and their commitment to helping others around the world, and here in our Valley was astounding. We had no idea the magnitude of impact they have made in impoverished communities in Mexico and Central and South America.
We were able to connect with the following organizations and understand the dire need in Guatemala, and the Solvang Rotary is committed to partnering with the Linda Vista Foundation to further help. Partnering makes our money stretch farther, and with the Solvang Rotary, we have a vital work force in place.
One nonprofit organization called Amigos De Santa Cruz has a mission to improve the lives of the indigenous people of Santa Cruz and surrounding villages through support for education and sustainable economic empowerment. Their vision is for families in their communities to have access to sustainable sources of income, where schools provide quality education to all children, and where women, men and youth have an active voice in decisions that impact their communities. We also visited The Maia Impact School, which is the first female indigenous-led secondary school in Central America.
The Maia Impact School offers a holistic education focused equally on academics, culture and identity, socioemotional development and family engagement. The school was beautiful and the girls brilliant and amazing in their educational achievements. The school is developing a network of public, private and nongovernmental organization partners with whom to collaborate in order to share best practices, co-design innovation, and to lead sustainable local development.
ASOCAVIVA is a faith-based organization built on Christian principles who the Rotary will partner with to build our well. Their main goal is to provide safe drinking water to remote areas in Guatemala and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Founded in 2019 this organization drills water wells and tries to improve the lifestyle and health of the communities they visit. They teach classes in health, personal and oral hygiene as well as nutrition, and encourage villagers to have a relationship with God and care for one another and their community.
Another organization visited, Cooperative for Education, believes that all children will be given the opportunity for education regardless of poverty level they are born into. They believe that poverty robs the children of opportunity and that education empowers them and opens doors which can change the destiny of Guatemala.
Suenos is the word for “dreams” in Spanish and this organization works with indigenous children whose families have moved from the rural areas of Guatemala to Antigua in hopes of a better economic opportunity. These children are kept from school and work as street vendors with their parents. Suenos is working to educate these children with at least a primary education to give them some economic stability and to help stop the cycle of child labor.
Lastly, we visited Faith in Practice which is a nonprofit Christian organization that seeks to improve the physical, spiritual and economic conditions of the poor in Guatemala through integrated surgical, medical, and dental mission trips and health- related educational programs. All of these organizations have many opportunities with which the Solvang Rotary can partner to help better the living and educational standards of the people of Guatemala.
Another amazing opportunity presented itself when a local Guatemalan Rotary Club was celebrating its 25th anniversary for a literacy reading program that was started by a fellow Rotarian in a local school.
There was a huge presentation complete with Guatemalan pop artist and Grammy Award-winning Gaby Moreno as a speaker, as well as the first female International Rotarian President Jennifer Jones.
Our entire entourage was invited to attend the Rotary International Gala that same evening in the converted old historic convent in Antigua called the Hotel Casa Santo Domingo. It has reigned as the best hotel in Guatemala since it opened in 1989. It functions like a museum with overnight guests and many of the surviving buildings are from the 1600s. It was an incredible evening and the Solvang Rotary was able to be photographed with our first-ever female Rotary International president, which was an honor. We all told her about our project in Guatemala and she gave us her full support and congratulations.
Lastly, en route to our humble Guatemalan hotel that we were based in for two nights while we worked on the water drilling project, we stopped overnight for an incredible visit at Lake Atitlan in the Sierra Madre Mountain Range. This gorgeous blue lake in Central America sits on a massive volcanic crater and is around 1,115 feet deep, making it the deepest lake in Central America. It is flanked by three volcanoes, Atitlan, Toliman and San Pedro. The views were absolutely breathtaking and many small villages surround the lake many accessible by water taxi only.
After parking our vans in a dirt field, we were helped to our water taxi that took us to our accommodations for the one night. It was an incredible stay and time to bond with our Rotary group before all the work began.
The highlight of this Lake Atitlan visit was that the Linda Vista Foundation purchased property to build a primary school that will be for both boys and girls.
We walked the property and could all envision a school that would educate the children of this very rural and impoverished area. All children deserve the opportunity to get an education to better themselves and to grow up healthy with clean drinking water, free of fecal matter and bacteria.
The Solvang Rotary and Linda Vista Foundation are partnering to make sure is becomes a reality.
Volunteers
Those who volunteered their time with the humanitarian trip included Solvang Rotary Club members: Dr. Art Kaslow, Dr. Robert Brugnone, Allan Jones, Joe Brown, Dean Elser, Sherry Thore, Kristan Morrison, Linda Johansen, and Stu Gildred. Lompoc Rotary Club and District 5240 International Chair Robert Klug attended, as did Morrison's daughter, Lauren Morrison.
It was a great team effort and bonding experience for all of us. It was extremely rewarding, humbling and a life-changing experience.
Nicaragua Medical Project 2015
Members of the Solvang, Santa Ynez Valley, Lompoc and San Luis Obispo Rotary Clubs have returned home from a medical mission to Nicaragua where they served the communities of Ciudad Sandino and Nueva Vida.
The delegation worked at the Nueva Vida Clinic from Oct. 26-30, supporting the overworked and underfunded local staff by seeing hundreds of patients daily and bringing in needed medical supplies. The Clinic was established in 1999 in response to a refugee resettlement program after Hurricane Mitch devastated parts of Nicaragua and Honduras. The resulting barrio houses thousands of poor families. The Clinic serves those in the barrio and in the nearby community of Ciudad Sandino.
Linda Johansen, International Chair for the Solvang Rotary, organized the trip of 17 members.
Dr. Art Kaslow, Yomaira De Leon and Pat Gimmer worked in the dentistry unit. They treated over 80 patients and performed over 85 procedures.
The cardiac unit, with Dr. Claudio Bonometti and Jose Adorno, treated more than 200 patients and also donated a $10,000 electrocardiogram (EKG) machine, while Max Jensen performed over 200 EKGs.
Dr. Dennis Bales and Ron Jones, in the ophthalmology unit, saw over 80 patients providing eye exams and glasses that would otherwise not have been affordable to patients whose average income is less that $2 per day.
Carol Anders, retired RN, and Tom Bormes, handled triage and check-in.
Norm and Jan Clevenger and Johansen worked in the pharmacy saving staff 120 hours and dispensing $5,000 worth of medicines.
Rob Klug, Rich Saferite and Joe Brown helped service the Clinic's construction needs by assembling rebar for a new building, digging trenches, extending a suction line to the new surgical unit, installing a roof air duct for suction housing, laying tile in the surgical unit, and providing over 120 hours of manual labor while sharing their skills with the staff.
Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital and Atterdag Village of Solvang provided many of the medical supplies the Rotary team took with them to Nueva Vida Clinic.
"We all returned home emotionally and physically exhausted but with touching memories of service to these lovely people," said Johansen.
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