NOTE: GoFundMe defaults to adding a 15% tip during donation payment. This is optional, and on top of the 2.9%+30cents of your donation that they already charge. You don’t have to tip anything, and you can change this tip to $0 using the slider on the page.
If you have PayPal (jeromeekiley@gmail.com) or Venmo (@Jerome-Kiley-1) in the US, these methods are free transfers. You can send me a personal gift, and I will add your anonymous gift to the GoFundMe’s fundraiser list of donations. However, you won’t receive the updates I post on GoFundMe.
Update 10/7/2023
Thank you to everyone who has given.
Greetings again from Ecuador. This will be the final update here unless the fundraiser is expanded in scope.
We've reached the goal of $1200 - thanks so much to everyone who has given!
All the money has been shared, as yesterday I gave the last $170 to Rafaela's family. This week, she is about to begin a journey of a number of surgeries, starting with 5 on her eyes, and later a big one on her heart. The family is planning to have a community fundraiser sometime by the end of the year, and our support was able to be an advance to help them through the near-term costs.
Thank you all again very much, and I hope you feel like you are a part of the communal experience.
-Jerome
An update on Zoe: Zoe and her mother are now back at home in Mindo. Zoe is receiving support care from family members, and physical therapy twice a week. She is slowly making some progress, able to eat for now, and having flexibility in her limbs - the doctor/therapist was impressed with her progress. She still has a long way to go, and it’s unclear still how it will go. But the family is slowly trying to process and adapt to the new realities, and that will also take time.
Update 9/14/2023
We are still at same $1109 as we were two weeks ago. Of that, I received $1078: $138.50 through Venmo, and $939.47 through GoFundMe deposits:
I’ve paid out a total of $1020, meaning I have about $60 extra. I will continue to accept donations with a view towards assisting Rafaela or someone else down the line.
These are the latest updates, and they will be the last updates I post here unless or until there are more steps assisting Rafaela or someone else. I will continue to post updates included in the newsletter that I send out, which you can access by subscribing at the bottom of any website page at www.barriers2bridges.org.
Zoe Ortiz Pérez and Family
Isidro just returned today from speaking with a child neurosurgeon. Zoe had an MRI done on Tuesday, and the neurosurgeon reviewed it (you can see the results in the picture below). There is substantial brain damage, but there is no tumor or encephalitis, and he has no plans to treat her. They are taking her to a neurologist, and she continues with her aggressive therapies for various body and mouth (sucking) movements. All her internal organs are fine, though, and no brain surgery is planned. However, she continues to have seizures, which can continue to cause more damage. The current theory is that a Covid viral infection caused the damage.
Here’s a short video of Zoe in therapy. Isidro and Karina are still very stressed and concerned, but haven’t lost hope. As it’s said, hope is the last thing to go.
Nely Ruiz and Family
I wasn’t able to visit the family in San Roque in my last visit, but I hope to in a future visit. From my understanding, the folks helping her reconstruct a house are still looking for collaboration of different materials.
Chontal Soccer Team
I was able to visit Chontal last week and I watched one of the Chontal men’s soccer team games, which they won 6-2. The young kids got their chance to play as well.
Rafaela Bosmediano Delgado and Family
I will be in contact once in a while with Janeth, Rafaela’s mother, to see how things are progressing with plans for her surgeries.
Last Year’s Fundraiser: Christmas Supplies for the School in Magdalena Alto
As a brief addendum, I was able to visit the small school up in the mountain that we provided Christmas resources to last year. The kids voted for a school president, but had the rest of the day off, so we had a few hours of games and English.
Cristian and another student climbed a tree to drop some tangerines for us all:
The school had a fundraising event the next day, with motocross and food and sports and a dance at the end of the night. I went early to watch some moto cross (see a video here), have some food, and spend some time with the kids.
Un Hornado, Ecuador’s classic dish in the mountains
Update 9/1/2023
I got back on Thursday from a trip to Chontal - here are some updates:
Zoé Ortiz Toalombo and Family
The $500 deposit went through to Karina. Click on the picture to see the confirmation. The family expressed their gratitude. They still have a lot of costs coming along the road, but they now are now set for 3 months of intensive therapy for Zoe in Quito. An important piece will be to see if her eating capacity can be recovered. Otherwise, she would need an expensive stomach surgery to place a feeding tube. And, they are still discovering the after effects, as things seem to come and go as she goes forward. Please keep the family in prayer.
But to make things worse, their 3-yr-old son Liam just spent time in another hospital with pneumonia. Not only the health risk is there, but his father had to be there with him the whole time, too. Liam’s back home now, but still recovering.
There is a strong flu going around everywhere in this part of the country, and it knocked me out for a week before I was traveling.
Nely Ruiz and Family
On Tuesday in Chontal, I chatted with the president Liliana about our gift for Nely Ruiz, a single mother of four in the neighboring small village of San Roque, whose house has burned down. Later in the day, friend Fernando gave me a ride on his motorcycle to go and bring the $300 to Nely. She was there with her mother and two of her children, Joel and Liliana. So Fernando and I presented her the money and she expressed her gratitude. They are still in trauma from what happened: the propane gas tank that was in their kitchen had caught backfire and exploded. It flew out of the house and was found across the street on the side of a cliff. It was a miracle that no one was hurt at all, and also a blessing that her brother, who lives next door, was away for several months, so the family has been able to live there in the meantime. Supplies for a new house on the plot of land next to the old house are on the way, as help from the local government.
Click on the pictures below for a few videos of the ride on the bike, going to San Roque and then leaving the house. On the ride back, we easily beat the mule with the kids!
Chontal Soccer Team
I spoke with Moisés, who I had worked with on arranging the funding. He’s grateful, and has been inviting me to the games, the first of which was last weekend. I’m hoping to make it to Chontal for a weekend soon and see a game. Now more than ever, people are migrating from Chontal and the area to other countries. Now more than ever, reasons are needed to stay.
Rafaela Bosmediano Delgado and Family
Part of the fundraiser is to have a little extra to support a need later on this year. I stopped by and visited Rafaela and her mother Janeth while in Chontal. We helped the Bosmediano Delgado family in 2014 after the landslides wiped out their house, and we’ve been friends ever since. Arsenio and Janeth have 4 daughters and a granddaughter, and Arsenio earns minimum wage in Ecuador. Their daughter Tatiana was one of the leaders of the youth group we started in Chontal back in 2016, and now has an almost 4-yr-old daughter Lesly. Rafaela is 5, and since birth has had a variety of special needs. Treatment was put off since the pandemic, but now is becoming more urgent. She has started first grade in the school, but she currently has facial, eye, palatal, tooth, and, most critically, an enlarged heart with a hole in it that needs to be repaired. Doctors are wanting to do 3 surgeries on her eyes from September to December: open up her closed sinus passages, which produce constantly infected and painful eyes; remove cataracts in both eyes, as she can hardly see out of one of them; re-orient her wandering left eye. Later on at some point, attention is needed for her teeth and cleft palate in the roof of her mouth. And finally, the heart doctor wants to have the open heart surgery as well before the end of the year, or early 2024; if not, it will get skipped to the following year 2025. There might be a charge for the surgeries, but Janeth would have to pay her own way, plus all personal supplies and medications for her and Rafaela during the hospital time and recovery. Finally, one of the principal doctors wants to have a genetic test done on her, which costs about $1k. The overall costs will be several thousand dollars, which will be impossible for them.
Lili, the president of Chontal, and Inés, Janeth’s sister in law who was the church president for many years, talked to me about the possibility of the community having a fundraising program in 3 months. I spoke with Janeth about diong a raffle if the community can’t do a program. It’s a very challenging decision-making time for them. I’m willing to keep collecting additional donations beyond the $1200 goal, with Rafaela and her family in mind.
Update 8/27/2023
Greetings again from Ecuador. Thanks to everyone who has given so far, we are up to $850 in the fundraiser in only a few days…
Today I put the money transfer in process to share the $500 with Zoe’s family. Click on the Xoom image here to see the whole transaction receipt.
The family is very grateful. Our donation is brought into the proceeds from the fundraiser raffle from last Sunday, and I shared the news with all the organizers (family and friends of Isidro and Karina). Everyone is grateful. Isidro shared a video of Zoe from today.
On Friday I took out $300 from an ATM in Quito (a free transaction), and on Monday, I will be going to Chontal to share it with Nely Ruiz and her family in San Roque.
Thank you all again, and I’ll post updates soon.
Update 8/23/2023
Wow, I first want to thank those who have already donated to bring us to $450 in the fundraiser in only a few days. I always write that I'm amazed by people's generosity, and it's always true. We're well on our way to reach the $1200 goal - thank you so much, it makes a huge difference! Everyone can still give through the GoFundMe platform here, or by PayPal (jeromeekiley@gmail.com) or Venmo (@Jerome-Kiley-1).
I just spoke with Zoe’s father Isidro, who shared extensively what’s been happening. Zoe has left the hospital and is staying at a residence just outside of Quito with her mother. They are visiting other private doctors, including plans for a neurosurgeon.
In hospitals in Ecuador, there has to always be someone present with an in-patient. It’s not like the US, where the hospital provides all the care, and family leave them to come back and visit. Someone else has to always be present providing basic care. If the last person leaves, people can be legally charged with abandonment. So, someone from the family has to always be present at the hospital. Zoe’s mother Karina has been in that role. The hospital has a shelter for family members, which is a crowded bunk-style room that’s basically for sleeping at the end of the day. Now that Zoe’s out of the hospital, she will still need a family member 24-7, and this is another cost and stress for families. Karina and Zoe are now staying in Mitad del Mundo, about a $20 cab ride to the hospital.
Isidro says there are a lot of neurological aftereffects of the crisis. Zoe has been able to sleep only with a sedation drip. When she is awake, she constantly cries out, as if in pain. She no longer has vision, and doesn’t recognize her parents’ voices. She has occasional seizures, and her limbs at times contort and tense up. Although she is scheduled for a free MRI in 2 months (more an after thought, as it won’t probably affect her treatment path), she has more pressing problems. Her eating reflex is very low, and she uses a GI tube. But these can’t be used for very long because of other risks, so she needs urgent therapy to develop that eating reflex. If she can’t develop that reflex, she’ll need surgery in a month to place a feeding tube directly into her stomach. The doctor has said that children have incredible adaptability, so time is of the essence to get aggressive therapies going to form new synapse channels in the brain. Physical, speech, eating, etc. The desire is a full therapy program, which will be expensive.
Isidro and Karina are quite depressed and stressed, as you might imagine. They look to me worn out. Isidro said that he wishes that it were a just a nightmare to wake up from.
And yet the doctor has said that he thinks it’s a miracle that Zoe is still alive after all she’s been through. Zoe is Greek for “Life”, and her parents named her that because she was seen in the ultrasound physically clinging to her umbilical chord for life when she was in danger of a dangerous premature birth.
Please keep the family in your prayers. Although we don’t know how it will turn out, and we know that some day each one of us will die, God has a plan through it all. Let’s ask for grace to, like Zoe, embrace the gift of life as it comes to us, with hope that after everything is done, God’s plan of redemption of our pain and suffering may be something we all share in.
***************************
The local raffle fundraiser took place this weekend for Zoe. About $1500 was raised, and over 35 prizes had been donated. It’s this raffle and community effort that we are joining with, making one large community.
Here are a few short videos of the early setup and the arrival of the pigs.
Support A New Hope
Have you ever felt like you’re at the end of your rope in life? Like, it seems like nothing in life is going as planned, and, all of a sudden, what you value the most is in danger of being gone altogether. A moment when you realize that your efforts alone can’t make life into what you want: you need help. And you turn to a new hope.
That’s happened to me in life. And thankfully, God is always ready to help with the dawning of a new hope.
I’ve recently arrived back in Ecuador, and right away events have turned difficult. A family’s infant daughter has suddenly fallen sick with a life-changing brain illness. A young, poor single mother of 4 has suddenly lost her house in a fire. An Ecuadorian presidential candidate was shot just 2 weeks before elections, as international gangs extend their reach into the country, especially garnering unoccupied poor youth.
I’m looking to raise $1200 to help in each of these situations. Would you like to join with me and local communities here, and be a part of offering the very special gift of a new hope?
Please consider a gift at GoFundMe, and come check out all the details below:
1. Support Brain Medical Treatment for Zoe Ortiz ToalombO ($500)
The family that manages a hotel where I sometimes stay here in Mindo, Ecuador has run into a nightmare scenario for parents: a sudden discovery of a mass on the brain stem of their 9-month-old daughter. And it’s been a roller coaster ride going from clinic to hospitals, finally to a long waiting period.
Their current hospital is free and public in Quito, about 2.5 hours away, and with a good reputation, but lacks the proper MRI capabilities. Meaning that they’ve had to wait for an MRI to open up somewhere else, while also for Zoe to stabilize enough in her health to be transported. She’s received cautious treatment, without a true diagnosis. In late July, she was found to have Covid, and the prevailing opinion is currently a viral infection in the brain, and type of meningitis.
In the meantime, her seizures have periodically continued, and the limbs on the left side of her body apparently are settling into more torsioned rest positions. Her vision has not been responsive, and her eating instincts aren’t fully active. Doctors are suggesting that these might be the permanent aftereffects of all these been through, as she’s being gradually taken off the supports she’s needed. But it’s not clear yet how things will turn out. You can see Zoe in a recent video here.
The family will be renting a room in Quito to support their presence, as Zoe may be discharged and they seek next steps in Quito. In Ecuadorian hospitals, every in-patient requires the presence of someone else in the hospital with them, so Zoe’s mother Karina has been staying in the hospital and its simple, free refuge housing all this time.
The family has received support in many ways, including from the hotel business owner, international friends, and especially the local people of Mindo. Close family and friends have worked with the local solidarity group to have a raffle on Sunday August 20. Over 30 businesses have donated prizes, and many residents throughout the community are participating. I’ve assisted with some of the organization myself, and will be at the raffle. We don’t know yet how much money it will generate, but probably $1000-1500. Maybe even more, but it’s difficult to tell.
I’ve offered them that I’d invite people I know to join in that community effort to support Zoe and her parents Isidro and Karina, and her brother Liam. Our contribution would be joined to the community raffle. So, I’m looking for $500 to join with the community of Mindo and support Zoe and her family during this life-changing, difficult time.
2. Support a new Home for Nely Ruiz and her children ($300)
Very recently, a small family’s house was burned down in the small village of San Roque next to Chontal. Nely Ruiz, a single mother, was left without anything except, thankfully, her four children. All of the neighboring communities have contributed something to the family, usually in grown produce or various personal and household items. She is in contact with other sources of support, including a local charitable organization that helps people to build new homes. I spoke with the president of Chontal and offered to see if some of us could join with the community of Chontal in offering some support. So, I’m looking for $300 to help them recover from the burning of their home.
Here you can watch a video of a family friend asking for help for the family (in Spanish).
3. Support community-initiated sports for the youth of Chontal ($200)
The now-young-adults have taken up forming a new youth soccer team to compete in the local competitions, passing forward and growing the opportunities that they received as youth. Organized activities for youth in Chontal are almost non-existent, and have always been a goal of mine to support. It’s especially important in these days as the narcotrafficking invasion of Ecuador over the last 3 years draws more and more youth into its reaches. The recent assassinations of various political leaders has shaken the country’s confidence in its future. So, this is an opportunity to support local people to empower them in their own initiatives to help themselves and each other.
From the young men organizing the team, to all the kids playing, these are all people I’ve known personally over the years and seen grow up. I’ve already supported the team with $220 contributed to the $300 cost for new uniforms for the 15 players. I’m looking for support/reimbursement of $200, to effectively join in after-the-fact. Their season starts at the end of August.
4. A Reserve for any additional needs over the next 3 months ($200)
I’m hoping to have a reserve to hold for additional needs that arise over the next several months, whether they be with the people receiving from the current fundraiser, or for new recipients in other situations. Anything unused from the reserve would be carried over to next year.
Thank you for considering supporting new hope here in Ecuador!
I’m always glad to hear from you. Feel free to leave a comment below.
NOTE: GoFundMe defaults to adding a 15% tip during donation payment. This is optional, and on top of the 2.9%+30cents of your donation that they already charge. You don’t have to tip anything.
If you have PayPal (jeromeekiley@gmail.com) or Venmo (@Jerome-Kiley-1) in the US, these methods are free transfers. You can send me a personal gift, and I will add your anonymous gift to the GoFundMe’s fundraiser list of donations. However, you won’t receive the updates I post on GoFundMe.