Welcome to another in our new series profiling the incredible employees at the Maternidad.
Please meet Elizabeth (Ellie) Sanchez Guillen, the second of the three home-visit nurses we are profiling this year.
Ellie has been working for the Center for 29 years as a nursing technician. While she has various on-site responsibilities, such as the triage area and consultation and treatment rooms at the clinic, her tremendous compassion and empathy for the poor have made her invaluable to the critical Home Visit Program at the Center.
Started by Sr. Lillian Bockheim several decades ago, the Home Visit Program takes medical care and social services directly to the barrios in Chimbote where the poverty is most dire and the housing conditions most deplorable. On average, this team of professionals goes out three times a week and visits 150 families per month.
“Home visits for me are a challenge, but it’s about bringing hope to the least fortunate, bringing a smile to those who have nothing, thanks to the motherhood created by the Maternidad,” said Ellie. “If the Maternidad didn’t exist, what would become of our patients?”
Public hospitals in Chimbote don’t provide free non-emergency care to uninsured patients, and the care in these hospitals is often substandard given lack of funding. “The home visits from the Maternidad are very different from the services of our hospitals in my city; the founders taught us to serve and not to be served. When we find a family living in poverty, we provide support in areas such as health, housing, diapers, if needed, and milk, significantly improving their quality of life. The founders always taught us the core values: No one should leave the Maternidad without medical attention due to lack of economic resources.”
To our donors, Ellie offered, “I would like to thank all the benefactors for their support. Thanks to you, our patients and their families have their health protected, decent housing, and shelter from the cold and rain, as well as beds to rest in.”
Although the lives of our staff in Chimbote also have many challenges, Ellie relies often on these words from Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “If you look around and observe the burdens others are carrying, you realize that life has been generous to you.”