NY/HELP had a very successful follow-up meeting on Sunday, March 15. We talked about the accomplishments of the 14-member February mission trip. We also began to plan for the next trip in the summer of 2009 -- probably the end of July or the beginning of August. The highlights of the minutes will be posted on our website soon.












The students at the Mataderos school showed great talent as they painted a mural on the side of the school.

The February 2009 group came back on March 1 and will be having a wrap-up meeting on Sunday, March 15, at UCC Church in Arcade, to share accomplishments and plans for the future.


Here is a short statement from David Makepeace ahead of that meeting. More will be posted after the meeting.

"The excitement surrounding NY/HELP these days is palpable and this was also evident on the trip with everyone approaching their jobs with commitment and emotion. We are clearly making great progress in our goal of making the tribe self-sufficient in the three areas of our interest – education, sustainable productivity, and medicine.

I will let the individual group members report on specifics, but, in general, the trip was very productive. We set up the clinic in La Laguna with Dr. Gutiérrez, Dr. Susan Schwartz, “pharmacist mate” Steve Schwartz and medical student Jan Wong and, thanks to gynecological nurse practitioner Ilene Alt and Dr. Liz Zausmer, were able to set up a women’s clinic in Mataderos as well. Dr. Gutiérrez also set out on two occasions by mule to visit outlying villages servicing patients who could not make it to either of our clinics.


Our work projects were many including new roofs, entire homes, stoves and latrines. Dick DeNise, myself, Dana Wilson, Allison Brown and Zack Krause spread our efforts among five of the ten villages in the area with two separate overnight trips to El Paraiso and Agua Blanca respectively."