In 1995, I spent 8 weeks doing public health work in the city of Zaruma, Ecuador (pop. about 30,000) in the province of El Oro. The other workers in my area and I worked in many small nearby villages. We worked with the non-profit organization Amigos de las Americas and our main projects over the summer were
teaching schoolchildren about dental health (teaching them about healthy habits, giving out Crest toothbrushes, brushing teeth with them once, and giving them a fluoride treatment) and answering mothers' questions about maternal and child health (we did this by arranging community health meetings for families in which we gave pertinent talks and distributed materials about prenatal care and other topics). The most comprehensive Ecuador site that I have found so far is Ecuador Tierra Hermosa -- check it out!
later I hope to add some of my experiences to this page, but for now I need to work on updating and changing the rest of my website. If you will be going to that area of Ecuador or are thinking about participating in the Amigos program, I'd be glad to talk with you or answer any questions that you have through e-mail or ICQ.
Thanks for stopping by!
katalina55@yahoo.com
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