The Quito Project

Team approach addresses village needs with a diverse ‘took kit’

Bina Valsangkar went to Quito, Ecuador, for the first time after her junior year at the University of Michigan. She was majoring in Spanish and spent two months there as a tutor. When she returns this summer after her first year of medical school, it will be as the founder and leader of the “Quito Project,” and she’ll be part of a team comprised of medical students, engineers … and Spanish majors.

Bina Valsangkar with local children in Ecuador

Her initial experience yielded two major take-home points: that she was committed to the welfare of the village (she stayed in touch through her host family after the organization that sponsored her pulled out), and that its health problems could best be addressed with a diverse tool kit.

“The Spanish students are going to tutor,” says Valsangkar, “the medical students are going to give workshops on nutrition and hygiene and also to provide basic physical exams, and the two engineers coming along are going to lead construction of a small shower facility.”

Valsangkar has also learned that the Medical School is deeply interested in supporting such projects. “Global REACH has been extremely helpful,” she says. “They’re helping us find M.D.s to come along with us. Whenever we want to advertise fund-raisers in the hospital or the medical school community, they help us do that. We need to find places to get inexpensive medical supplies and drugs. All these projects have similar needs, and Global REACH helps us find what we need.”

—JM

Also:

Two-Way Street

Decision-Making Strategies of the Mam Mayans

Privilege and Sacrifice

The Quito Project

‘Pre-emptive Strike’