For 35 years, Hope of Life has been providing nutritional support through medical intervention for children at extreme risk of death caused by malnutrition. In 2020 alone, rates of malnutrition in Guatemala more than tripled, and our on-campus St Luke’s nutritional recovery center has been filled to overflowing with patients, forcing us to delay village visits or refer children to sub-standard area hospitals. Put simply: the need is exceeding our capacity to serve.
Back-to-back Hurricanes Eta and Iota in November of 2020 claimed dozens of family homes on Hope of Life’s campus, extensively damaged infrastructure and destroyed our recently completed Medical Clinic. This meant the loss of our ability to provide general medical care for hundreds of children and families who are not experiencing nutritional crisis.
Eighteen months later, we are writing a new chapter in the story of Saving Lives!Rather than rebuilding the medical clinic in its now-compromised location, we have the opportunity to add on to our existing Center for Nutritional Recovery, better known as St Luke’s Hospital, and dramatically expand our patient services with minimal impact to our existing footprint.
Adding an outpatient wing to St Luke’s will not only expand our capacity to provide medical care to vulnerable children and families, but will also enable us to meet national Guatemalan facility requirements for an improved classification ranking as a health center.
With this new construction (specifically, the installment of a code-grade ramp system, elevator for patient transport, and improvements to the Rescue Center and Laboratory), St Luke’s will legally be classified as a ‘hospital,’ and our medical services will expand beyond emergency nutrition intervention to include:
Neonatal Care
Gynecology
Optometry
Psychology
Dermatology
Dental Services
Diagnostic Imaging Center
Improved Laboratory Services
To make this dream a reality, we need to raise $1,200,000 in funding, so we are calling on our longtime partners, supporters, and friends to join with us in building a stronger future.
Leveling-up our national ranking from ‘Center for Nutritional Recovery’ to ‘Hospital’ will truly change the way Hope of Life does healthcare: the addition of neonatal care alone will Save Lives that would otherwise have been lost!
The mission of Hope of Life is and will always be Saving Lives. No other project more closely aligns with our organizational goals and mission than this one.
Please consider joining us in our mission and in this project so that together, we can Save more Lives.