Letter from president, Bina Valsangkar

Dear Friends of The Quito Project,

The fall has always been an exciting time of year for The Quito Project-the summer's project comes to a close in August and the crew returns to the United States full of new ideas and inspirations for the next year. Some of our volunteers move up to lead the project and initiate their own interventions and we recruit bright new talent to volunteer in every facet of the project. We fill chalkboards at our brainstorming sessions with new ideas and goals, and no proposal seems too ambitious. During this exciting time, as we expand our membership, diversify our leadership, and initiate new community interventions, I have made every effort to turn inwards and re-examine the project amidst all the excitement of growth. How are we helping the communities we serve? Are we providing them with the tools and services necessary to succeed, or are we creating a cycle of dependency?

These are difficult, but important questions to answer. If The Quito Project strives to make real change in our target communities, we must make time in our busy schedules of fundraising, grant-writing, organizational tasks, and group meetings to address these questions.

To address these difficult questions, we are focusing our efforts in making sustainable change. Erika Kido and our public health team will not only lead nutrition seminars, but plan to train and provide a scholarship for promising community members that can continue to lead these courses when our project members are not present in Quito. Julie Maslowsky and the social work team will work with local teenagers to identify a problem in their community and take action toward a solution. Finally, Jenny Knoester and the medical team will make efforts to collaborate with local labs and specialists, so that we may provide more thorough, continuous care for our patients. These are just some examples of how The Quito Project is enabling the community, rather than promoting dependency.

What does the future hold for The Quito Project? I would like to see our tutoring program expand to provide year-round academic support, establish strong ties with local general physicians and specialists who will be able to care for our clinic patients if they fall ill while we are gone or need more advanced care than our clinic can provide, and continue to expand our public health and social work interventions, integrating them into the community. I am very excited to accompany our team of approximately 80 students, physicians, dentists, and young professionals to Quito this summer to lay the groundwork for these expansions.

Please explore the rest of our website to see how The Quito Project is initiating change and empowering Quito locals to engage in their communities, lead healthier lives, and eventually, rise out of poverty. I think you will like what you see.

Sincerely,
Bina Valsangkar
Founder and President
The Quito Project