(NaturalNews) Ecuador is a beautiful country with a wealth of natural abundance: Food, sunlight, gold and even oil. And yet some people slip through the cracks in the social network of Ecuador and find themselves impoverished, lacking food, clothing and a place to sleep.
Last year, while living in Ecuador, my wife and I launched an effort to provide emergency aid to the poor, elderly members of Vilcabamba, Ecuador. This effort involved visiting their homes, finding out what they needed, then acquiring those items and delivering them.
It's not a long-term solution to poverty, of course (that would require more of a focus on education, food-growing skills, etc.), but it's a start. And it turned out to be the beginning of an effort that has since expanded to touch many lives in
Ecuador and beyond.
Our first
video documenting this effort showed the plight of Julia Maria, a woman living on the side of the road, penniless and barefoot, who happily received our help with food,
clothing and a mattress. That video is shown here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/025487.htmlToday, our second video looks at an Ecuadorian man named Victor, who lives with his
family in a half-finished concrete
home situated in a lot filled with rubble. Having lost his hearing and other mental functions, Victor can no longer work, so he depends on his family for survival (and they're poor, too).
In this video, we visit Victor and his family to determine their immediate needs, then we head off to purchase those items and deliver them to his family. It's no long-term fix for their situation, but it is one small step towards showing these people the possibility of a brighter future.
As you'll see in future
videos, we have since expanded our efforts to focus on education and entrepreneurship, believing that the best way to help the poor people of any nation is to teach them how to become self sufficient through the acquisition of new skills. Education is the key to long-term sustainability in any society.
Watch for more humanitarian aid videos and projects to be announced by
NaturalNews soon. It's all part of our effort to demonstrate
real solutions to the problems facing our world today.
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Friday, February 06, 2009
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