FROM THE DIRECTOR…Dear Fellow Missionaries, DMF has had a number of requests to add the convenience of making a donation using a credit card. Having looked into the possibilities, costs and overall convenience, we are now able to process donations made using a VISA, MasterCard, American Express or Discover card. The donation envelope has been changed to include your credit card information, the amount of your donation, and your signature. If you wish, an ongoing monthly donation can be indicated on the envelope. Some, if not most, will continue to be generous using the familiar "old" way: mailing in a check just as you have done before. The new way is an addition to the familiar way, not a replacement. Either way, each month you will continue to receive the newsletter. Each year your generosity becomes a substantial support to Hospital San Carlos. Sister Maite Tomasena, this month's author, is the Directora Administrativa of the hospital. She sends you a thank you note and update on the work of her community, the Daughters of Charity. In late January/early February 2003, I plan to visit Hospital San Carlos along with the other mission projects in Chiapas supported by DMF. The missionaries are an inspiration to me. I look forward to spending a bit of time with them. Wishing you a blessed and joyful Christmas! Fr. Martin |
A HOSPITAL OF THEIR OWNBy Sister Maite Tomasena Hospital San Carlos is located in the area known as Altos de Chiapas in this most southern state of Mexico. For more than 35 years this hospital has provided services to the native Mayan people who live in the hundreds of surrounding towns and remote villages throughout this mountainous region, principally ethnic Tzeltal, but also Tojolobal, Chol, Tzotzil and others. These are agricultural people who live in conditions of extreme poverty. The land they cultivate is rocky and prone to erosion so the crops are meager and the price offered to them for their crops of corn and coffee have never been lower. Added to this adversity is the political division and conflict that has plagued this land for such a long time and is now incarnated in the struggle of the Zapatistas. Politically motivated assaults against those associated with the Zapatista movement and provocations against villages within the autonomous zones continue into the present. A recent upsurge in violence in the last month, marked by assassinations of several campesinos, has introduced more stress and uncertainty into the lives of the people who struggle daily to feed their families. Common health problems include malaria, malnutrition, tuberculosis, parasitic infections, and high rates of death in childbirth and infancy. Much of the disease is preventable; however because clean water, sanitation, and sustainable food production are not available, these conditions continue to exact a high toll. The lack of a system of health services within the communities makes the role that Hospital San Carlos plays even more vital as it attempts to respond to these needs. This past year, there were 13,188 outpatients' visits and 2,518 hospitalizations: 45 percent of which were for children. Many of these hermanos arrive in very grave health with diseases already in advanced stages due to the dire poverty and the difficulty in traveling outside their remote and inaccessible communities... |
