"To find out how much you've truly been blessed with in terms of love, time, energy, talent, joy, abundance, confidence, intelligence, wit, or any other quality, substance, or dispensation...give of them. Then you'll know what boundless really means."
~The Universe
TUT's Adventurers Club
March 2010 'Gifts From The Universe' Project:
House Of The Children
Empowering global cultures by providing sustainable water, sanitation, health and education programs that raise the quality of life for indigenous children and adults… one dollar at a time!
Nancy Santullo, Founder and Executive Director of House of the Children, first visited Peru in 1999 because of her interest in the medicinal healing properties indigenous to the region. Nancy observed that children were drinking contaminated water, suffering from chronic health problems, and extremely limited to educational opportunities. Easily preventable gastrointestinal illnesses caused by contaminated water and rustic hygiene and sanitation, as well as respiratory illnesses, are among the leading causes of infant mortality and illness throughout the region!
As a result, Nancy developed House of the Children and the following goals:
- Healthy, educated, culturally aware children and adults that prosper in their natural environment.
- Communal, low-tech, clean water and sanitation systems that are sustainable, and function in harmony with the environment.
- Integral health and hygiene educational programs, and medical assistance for children and adults that achieve long term health advances.
HOTC programs help to reinforce, improve, and culturally contextualize existing health care services provided by the Peruvian health ministry through ongoing partnerships with them.
The Peruvian health ministry has small health posts in some native communities, but their interventions are mainly pharmaceutical, with limited preventive health care and health education. There is no cultural or language training for health workers in indigenous communities, which often speak an indigenous language and are not fluent in the national language of Spanish. The people often wait until they are in critical condition before seeking care for themselves, children, or family members - due to their fears and personal experiences within a system that has not always understood or accepted their lifestyle and customs.
HOTC builds capacity and supports an exchange of knowledge among indigenous villages that enables individuals, communities, and inter-community organizations to defend their lands and traditions from outside economic interests, encroachment, and cultural erosion. Communities have final say over HOTC's function in their community. Though biodiversity conservation programs have operated in the region, indigenous populations who have lived in the forest for centuries continued to be largely forgotten. Even with decades-long scientific and anthropological research, the indigenous are still sorely in need of effective solutions to improve their health.
HOTC's vision is that once their replication programming proves successful in Peru, they can then reach out to regions in Brazil, the Republic of Congo, and Indonesia.
As part of our TUT's Adventurers Club mission, we have chosen House Of The Children as our adoptive organization for the month. To reach our collaborative goal of support for them, please donate a dollar or more now at the link below.
Happy Giving!