Work, Play, Love – Nursing Projects
Returning to Serve the Community
Lake Chapala & San Pedro/Mezcala Nursing Project
You may never have heard this astounding statistic: Lake Chapala, Mexico, is the #1 leading location with the most cases of Kidney Disease in the world.
Why?
During a time of economic expansion and industrialization, the Coca People (an indigenous population that has lived in the Lake Chapala area peacefully for centuries) began to leave their homes during working hours to make a living for their families while working in factories in neighboring cities. With parents and adults gone, that left children of all ages to fend for themselves nutritionally. If you ask yourself at what age you started being able to cook and care for yourself, you were probably in your early teens, and you likely had the benefit of local grocery stores, full cupboards, and stocked pantries. In Lake Chapala, these children who are trying to take care of their younger siblings have no such access.
An Entire Population In Need
With parents gone for prolonged hours, and no access to fresh food, clean water, or skills to cook, children in families began to fall ill and become stricken with this disease. Neglect and malnutrition are the leading cause of Kidney Disease in children in this region of Mexico. They suffer from the highest number of cases per capita in the world. About 40% of them are currently suffering from the disease or have precursory markers for the disease. The solution for this disease is simple: feeding children so they do not go hungry without the vital nutrients that the brain and body need to sustain a happy and healthy soul.
What if we could feed this entire community? Would that solve the problem in its entirety? It is a tremendous step in the right direction, but it’s not the whole picture; people are still dying at an alarming rate due to this disease that has gripped the entire population. You might imagine that with no access to food and water, these communities also lack medical care. So we began looking at how we could work to help care for those who are already sick and suffering, and that’s exactly where Work Play Love stepped in to help.
What We Are Doing
We were fortunate enough to meet four unique souls from this community who want to give back to the place that raised them to be who they are. With your help, we were able to send these four angels to nursing school so that they could return to the ill and offer much-needed medical care.
While Work Play Love has already allocated funds for these four visionaries’ tuition and ongoing education, we still need help to gain future donations to offset these costs to help us meet our responsibility for the girls’ orphanage we support in Guatemala. Because we have been so successful in helping aid the orphanage, it’s now time to start putting our focus on the needs of other underserved populations in compromised environments or circumstances so they have a chance to learn what it feels like to triumph as they overcome severe challenges.
You can help by donating to our causes, which truly supports all of them as much as it supports any of them. Each dollar goes farther down in Mexico, and you have the ability to effect great change in this community that has been so negatively impacted by Western industrialization.
How You Can Help
Donate Today
Please consider offering a one-time donation or a monthly contribution to help offset the cost of the nursing project. Every dollar counts!
Volunteer
If you are interested in volunteering in Guatemala, we invite you to join on us on one of our pre-planned service trips. These trips attend to the current critical needs of the orphanages. Visit our volunteer page, and contact us for more information.
Spread The Word
Help us spread the word about Hogar Heroes by sharing this page with your friends and family!
VolunTOUR
Join one of our scheduled trips to the orphanages or get in touch to learn how you can set up a trip to Guatemala with your group.
