“Un Canto a la Vida” – The Benefits of Volunteering

Some Volunteer Members of Team One – their faces say it all!

We talk a lot about what we give to the Ecuadorian people during our mission in Ecuador, but the sharing of our health care expertise pales by comparison to what we get in return as volunteers. For many on Team One, this experience was new, including myself. We learn new skills and how to work in a different cultural environment that can only help us to be better citizens back home in a country with a growing cultural diversity.

For the Ecuadorians who travel from all over with the hope of being selected for surgery on clinic day, we are held in high esteem for our knowledge and skills. As volunteers we are received on clinic day by a lobby full of family members with a standing ovation in appreciation of the contribution we are making. One patient, Monica made a variety of colourful beaded angels for every CAMTA team member to thank them for helping her to become mobile. Every team member, male and female, was proudly wearing their angel pin on their scrubs.

While we may be seen as angels, it is in fact the Ecuadorians, who become our angels. They remind us of why we chose to be in the caring profession in the first place, and through our experience we arrive back home reflecting on what truly matters in life; to care and give; to share and learn; and to make a difference in the lives of others.

The experience has given true meaning to the Mission Statement of the Padre Corollo Hospital, “Un Canto a la Vida”. The patients strengthen and lift our spirit and remind us that what is truly important is “to sing to life”.

-- Blog post submitted by Janet Emmett, Volunteer Lay Person