The Galapagos providence is 7.844 km2 (4.87403 mi2) wide and is between 89º and 92º longitude west, 1º and 40 inches north, and 1º and 36 inches south. The capital is Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. This volcanic island zone is located about 1,000 km (621.371 mi) from the Ecuadorian mainland. Ecuador obtained possession of these islands on February 12, 1832. The Galápagos chain consists of 13 large islands, 17 small islands, and 47 large rocks that emerge from the ocean. The principle islands include: La Isabela, Santa Cruz, Fernandina, San Salvador, San Cristóbal, Floreana, Marchena, Española, Pinta, Baltra, Santa Fe, Pinzón, Genovesa, Rábida, Seymour, Wolf, Tortuga, Bartolomé and Darwin. There are three counties found in the Galápagos: Isabela, San Cristóbal, and Santa Cruz. The island of Santa Cruz was where this specific mission was performed.
Even though this island has a great touristic attraction and a large part of its land is used for agricultural purposes, it has suffered greatly from the migration of inhabitates to the larger urban areas. As a result of farmers migrating to more urbanized areas, these towns are now suffering from the same migratory problems that large cities experience: overcrowding, poverty, unemployment, and large communities of people that are not having their basic human needs fulfilled. The state is then obviously lacking in its ability to satisfy the new healthcare demands it is required to meet, creating worrisome health indicators and low general health coverage.
 The most important economic activity in the rural sector is agriculture, without which its inhabitants would not survive. In the urban sector tourism is most vital, with most of its population actively involved in economic activities. Even though there are areas of poverty, we can affirm that there is not misery.
The island of Santa Cruz (Indefatigable) is located in the middle of the Galapagos Archipelago, it has a surface area of 98,555 km2 (612,392.378 mi2) and consists of two different materials derived from two distinct geological time periods. The oldest part of the island is found on the narrow northeast strip, which consists of lava rock and fossilized limestone. The majority of the island, however, was formed during a more recent geological time era. It was created from a series of basaltic volcanic eruptions, superimposed by more recent ash cones.
Galápagos was discovered by frier Tomás de Berlanga en 1535 and was used in the following centuries by pirates, buccaneers, and whalers as a supply station and a place to repair their boats. As mentioned previously, the Galápagos Islands became part of the Ecuadorian territory in the year 1832. Santa Cruz was colonized in the late 1920’s by a group of Norwegians whose dream was to can fish but their dream would never be fulfilled. Some of them settled in the highlands and changed their activites from that of fishing to that of agriculture out of a necessity to survive

In order to fullfil the contract between the local government in Santa Cruz, the Republic Hospital of Ecuador in Puerto Ayora and Charity Anywhere Foundation, a group of CAF volunteers embarked on a new mission to provide care for the people of this area. The following volunteers were included in the above mission: Dr. Washington Zambrano (Mission Director), Dr. Alberto Vargas (Medical Coordinator), Dr. Gloria Polo (Internal Medicine), Dr. Olga Farinango (General Medicine), Dr. Luis Grau (Ophthalmologist), Dr. Whittaker (Gynecologist), Dr. Lisa Bebell (General Medicine), Carmen Lascano (Nurse), Sharon Schafer (Nurse), Charelle Whittaker (Medical Assistant), Rosa Suntasig (Ophthalmology Assistant), and in pharmacy we had Patricio Guzmán (Engineer).
Services were offered from the 26_30 of November. The following are the numbers of people that we are able to help during the expedition in each speciality area.

           Prescriptions     Ophthalmology        Inernal Medicine       General Medicine        Total              
Day 26        63                         46                            32                               47                       125       
Day 27        88                         66                            35                               82                       183
Day 28        49                         53                            30                               72                       155 
Day 29        53                         46                            29                               47                       122
Day 30        42                         31                            23                               62                       116       
Total           295                       242                          149                             310                      701
                                                34.4%                      21.3%                         44.2%                 100%   

Obviously general medicine was the area of highest demand. Fortunately there were four professionals available to cover this need.

The principle purpose of the medical visits was for treatment of intestinal polyparasitosis (multiple parasites in the bowels), especially among children and adolescents. As a result of the climate and the geographical position of the island, the common cold seemed to be developing into an influenza epidemic.
                                    Men                                      Women                                            Total
                         Number                %                 Number                  %                   Number               %                        

< 1 year                7                      1.5                     12                       5.3                     19                   2.7
1-5 years              41                     8.6                     37                      16.4                    78                11.1 
6-15 years            64                     13.5                   57                       25.2                   121              17.3 
16-45 years          230                    48.4                  62                       27.4                   292              41.7
46-65 years          106                    22.3                  34                       15.1                   140              19.9
> 65 years             27                     5.7                    24                       10.6                    51                 7.3
Total                     475                   67.7                  226                      32.3                    701              100

The following dentists were responsible for the dental care provided to the patients: Dr. María Isabel Zambrano (Dental Coordinator, Pediatric Dentist), Dr. Ximena Tapia, Dr. Carla Arias, and Dr. Juan Pablo del Valle, all of which are general dentists. Carlos Celin was the dental technician and Julio Zambrano (Engineer) was in charge of sterilization.
The total number of dental patients seen was 553. This number includes both fluoride treatment patients as well as those who receive dental procedures. Many patients received more than one procedure.
Flouride treatments                                     Dental Proceduers
< 5 years       51                                              Cleanings       100
5-8 years       146                                            Fillings            310
9-12 years      93                                             Extractions      60
> 12 years      4
With the satisfaction of having contributed to the welfare of the people of the Galápagos Islands, we returned to Quito with the neverending desire to continue helping those less fortunate.

From the 26th up to the 29th of December was organized a mission to Otavalo; which is a population located 62 miles away from Quito, the Ecuadorian capital city. Otavalo is a unique region in the middle of the beautiful Andean valleys. It’s surrounded by several volcanoes such as Cotacachi, Imbabura, and Mojanda. This region is also surrounded by several lakes too such as Imbakucha or Saint Paul’s lake; which makes this region one of the most favored as far as natural sources.
The Otavalo people is very proud of their cultural and traditional heritage; which explains why these people combine on their artesian work traditional music, customs, and deep love to mother nature. With the expectation of using donated dental chairs and medical revision tables given by the Charity Anywhere Foundation to the municipal government of Otavalo; our medical team left Quito early mooning knowing that giving humanitarian aid is always a privilege reversed to few of us.
Our team was leaded by Dr. Washington Zambrano DDS (Maxillofacial Oral Surgeon) and with the assistance of the following medical professionals: Dr. Alberto Vargas (Epidemiologist), Dr. Gloria Polo (Internal Medicine Practitioner), Dr. Carlos Grau (General Practitioner), and Dr. Luis Grau (Ophthalmologist). Our medical team also counted with volunteers as Hilda Grau RN, Greg Jones RN, Tricia Beck RN, Rosa Suntasig (Ophthalmology Assistance). Our Pharmacy had great volunteers as Natalie Mier, Luis Moreno (a pharmacy student), David Lucero, and Ana Maria Zambrano (who are former medical students). Charity Anywhere also counted with some local Medical Doctors in Humberto Velasquez as well as Segundo Velasquez. Local volunteers also support Charity Anywhere efforts. Medicine students showed up to help too like Christian Farinango, Sara Lito, Benancia Yambeta, as well as the RN Carmen Lascano. Our Local Coordinator in Otavalo was Dr. Olga Farinango (General and Natural Medicine Practitioner); who had great solidarity and consequently the success on her work at the end of this mission. Dr. Farinango invited our group at the end of our mission to visit sites of natural remembrance; which was highly appreciated by those who were benefited of such.
Charity Anywhere also considers convenient to thank the Mayor of Otavalo- Mr. Mario Conejo. The Mayor of Otavalo had an enthusiastic aptitude as far as fulfilling each statement found at the letter of Covenant between Charity Anywhere and the Municipal Government. This Covenant allows Charity Anywhere to serve every time very efficiently in that particular region of Ecuador. The Municipal Government of Otavalo had the courtesy to publicly recognize during this medical mission the labor of Charity Anywhere Foundation in favor to the inhabitants of Otavalo; and particularly during the local festivities back in October, 2007.

Our team was able to accomplish the following numbers: 620 medical consults, 482 prescriptions were given by the pharmacy during three days of medical attention. The following is a list of who the attention was given: 103 consults with 89 prescriptions (Wednesday 26th of December, 2007); 205 consults with 162 prescriptions (Thursday 27th of December, 2007); 312 consults with 231 prescriptions (Friday 28th, 2007). It should be mentioned that in our first day of labor some members of our team arrived late to Otavalo. Consequently, our team could not do to the full of its capacities. Split on medical specialties, the distribution was the following: 1. Internal Medicine had 153 patients; 2. Ophthalmology had 134; and General Medicine 333.

Since this was the very first time when our non profit organization brought with it an Ophthalmologist to this area; the population there was very interested on receiving ophthalmic care. Quite soon those physical capacities brought by our Ophthalmologist and his team were short compare to the demand of patients and their needs. Although several individuals were benefited with corrective lenses; a lot of work is ahead of us in this medical field (Ophthalmology); particularly when the time comes to talk about ophthalmic surgeries. Therefore, for our next mission our team is planning to count with enough infrastructure and technology to be able to do surgical Ophthalmology. Thirty two pairs of glasses with their respective cases were donated then. The Age and Gender distribution for the total amount of patients in all the Medical fields was the following:

The Epidemic profile for this particular mission done in Otavalo obviously has not really changed mostly owed to the fact that the kind of Medicine we offer is only certain days and individually. To be able to obtain substantial changes on the medical conditions in the inhabitants of Otavalo is needed continuous and permanent medical interventions. Charity Anywhere expects to do these medical interventions at this medical dispensary of “The Jewel” there in Otavalo as often as possible with the only hope to improve the quality of living conditions for those who live there.
The Dental Department counted with the presence of Dr. Isabel Zambrano DDS (Dental Paediatrician), Dr. Monica Zambrano (Orthodontist), and Dr. Ximena Tapia DDS (General Dentist). The Dental team also counted with the presence of the following Dental students: David Carvajal, Patricia Alvear, and Andrea Bermeo. Voluntarily serving at the sterilization area was Pamela Sanchez. Our equipment technician was as always Mr. Carlos Celin. The Dental Team was able to take care of 236 patients of whom 381 procedures were able to get done in them.

It was distributed to the patients tooth brushes and tooth pastes. It was also given pieces of clothes.  With the help of our volunteers: Economist Maria Eugenia Guzman and Ms. Marianela Ruiz 75 hair cuts were given to adults and children. After this journey, those who had the chance to serve in Otavalo came back to Quito hoping that our next mission will be again full of optimism and with renewed zeal.

Project: fixing of stairs to the main access “La JOYA” Health Center.
December 26th, 2007 was the day when our construction team arrived to Otavalo. Soon after, we started our work at the Joya Health Center by fixing one the main access that started at ground level an it went up to the first storage. We started by cleaning high grass, then we leveled up the grown to be able to put there paving stones and give to it the appearance of a set of stairs.

Project: fixing a classroom at the Andres Bello Elementary school. This school belongs to the neighbourhood of Araque, Otavalo.
Later on in the afternoon of that 26th of December, our construction team went to the neighborhood of Araque located at the eastern of the Saint Paul’s lake. We soon realized what we had ahead of us: painting inside and outside of this classroom, providing electricity and some outlets, as well as the placement of windows too.  Three neon lights were also placed to give electrical light to those who will eventually use this facility.