While U.S. shoppers crowded malls the week before Christmas, La Sierra University students vaccinated animals, built chicken coops and played with orphaned and ill children.
A 12-member contingent from the university's Pre-Medical Society embarked Dec. 14 for the Republic of Guatemala on the organization's fourth annual humanitarian mission to Guatemala City and nearby communities. Faculty sponsor and biology assistant professor Eugene Joseph led the group of 11 students. They brought gifts of stuffed toys, quilts, medicine and compassion to a region still languishing from the effects of civil unrest. They returned to the U.S. Dec. 22.
"The overall goal was to go in and help that community recover," said Krista Gonzales, the society's vice president and fourth-year pre-med student. The excursion was Gonzales's second society aid trip to Guatemala.
Third-year student Dennis Cambara described the trip as a life-changing experience. "When I came back [to the U.S.], I brought ideas of what I can do for the future of this country," Cambara said.
Cambara's parents are natives of Guatemala. He accompanied them on biennial trips to their homeland to visit family. However, the society's experiences inspired Cambara. He wants to involve La Sierra's School of Business in entrepreneurial projects and perhaps its English department in English courses for Guatemalans, a language taught only in private schools there.
Gonzales's trips with the society spurred within her a desire to work in the Inland Empire's Hispanic community as a physician and political activist while continuing missionary outreach to other countries.
La Sierra's pre-medical students made crafts with sick children at Roosevelt Hospital in Guatemala City. Students Shawn Hanson, Noemy Cruz and Jon Ross dressed as clowns to entertain the kids.
The group brought a piñata, puppets, toys and quilts to youngsters at Los Pinos Children's Home, a Seventh-day Adventist-operated orphanage. They gave clothes and toys to HIV-stricken children at the La Casa de San Jose AIDS hospice in San Lucas. They played soccer and made gingerbread houses and popsicle-stick picture frames with the children.
At the seaside town of Sipacate, the students played games and handed out toys to about 200 community children.
The group helped Mario Mendez, a local veterinarian and Christian pastor, vaccinate pigs, cows and other animals in Magdalena. The students built two chicken coops, then carried the heavy coops, 100-pound bags of chicken feed and boxes of 46 chicks over hills to two families previously selected by Mendez. The chickens and their eggs will provide both food and sales income for the families.
"Their efforts empowered the neighborhood to be able to survive," Joseph said.
The society is already planning fundraising activities for the 2008 mission trip and wants to involve other university departments and churches. Individuals wishing to contact the Pre-Medical Society can call Joseph at 951-785-2524 or ejoseph@lasierra.edu.
