Hello Cofan supporters!
We have just returned from our trip to Ecuador; there were five of us making the trip – Lori and Steve Sargent, Dorinda and Chris Rife, and me. It was a very good trip – very productive and inspiring. Two of my biggest takeaways are:
- How great the need is for our support – the rainforest is under many threats, from illegal mining, oil extraction, and corporations who want to cut it down and plant African palm trees for palm oil or cocoa plants. The Cofan are trying to hold on to their million acres, but they need help!
- How much our consistent support is appreciated – the Borman brothers, Felipe and Federico, made the point multiple times to us that knowing they can count on our support year after year is extremely important. And I could feel in interactions with the Cofan people that they have begun to trust us.
This was our most ambitious trip. We worked on three initiatives over the two-week period:
- Vision screening
- WaterStep
- Days for Girls.
Vision Screening
During our 2024 trip, Dorinda Rife (past All Peoples member and vision specialist) noticed that no one was wearing glasses. We learned that they had never been screened for vision! Personally, I can’t imagine – I was wearing glasses by the age of 10 and could not have succeeded in school without glasses. We spent the past two years planning how we might screen people for their vision. With help from All Peoples Endowment and Dorinda taking the lead, we started the screening on this trip! Felipe Borman arranged for eight Cofan people to come from their villages to Quito where Dorinda trained them to test for visual acuity, eye movement issues, and color blindness, and to look for cataracts and other signs of abnormality in the eye. These eight young people caught on quickly as they practiced on each other during the training. Then, over the next 10 days, we traveled to five communities where our Cofan friends screened a total of 95 individuals. Of these, 50 people should be referred for further evaluation and possibly glasses. These are for a variety of reasons – visual acuity, eye movement issues, and a few with cataracts. We also distributed 60 pairs of readers for close vision work! The goal for 2026 is to screen 600 individuals, which our eight Cofan friends are already working on. There is an ophthalmologist in Quito who is interested in volunteering her time to go out to the communities to do follow-ups. We can also look for volunteer ophthalmologists or optometrists from the U.S. who would be willing to make the trip. We will find a way to make happen!
WaterStep
Last year, Carlos Menendez, our healthcare navigator for the Seguro Campesino program, reported that children in different communities were getting diarrhea, which can be life-threatening. Working with WaterStep here in Louisville, we arranged to take 4 Bleach Makers with us along with purchasing solar panels in Ecuador to power them. I gave a presentation in several of the communities about the importance of clean water, hand washing and sanitation for health. Felipe chose individuals in each community to take charge of the bleach maker system and Steve Sargent (thank you Steve!) taught them how to use it.
Days for Girls
Thanks to the Louisville Days for Girls team, we took 40 kits – washable period products – to Cofan girls and women. I gave the Days for Girls presentation six times – responding to when the women were available. We replaced some kits that women received in 2023, and some girls and women received theirs for the first time. One of my favorite moments was when I presented the information about how a baby is conceived along with visuals of a woman’s anatomy, and a mother of several children exclaimed (in Cofan of course) – “Oh, that’s how it happens!!” The women are so grateful to have these kits – it saves them a lot of money and allows them to be prepared for their periods. I am grateful to Federico for his sensitive and enthusiastic translation during these presentations.
Two exciting developments here at home!
- The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth have again granted us $10,000 toward our $20,000 goal to fund Seguro Campesino. This will help us meet our commitment, but we sincerely hope that you will continue to support this vital program in 2026. We’d like to send some money in the next month if you are able to contribute soon.
- Danica Novgorodoff and I have had our “Save the Cofan, Save the Rainforest” presentation accepted for UUA’s General Assembly. We have scheduled the recording of our presentation by Zoom on Friday May 8 at 10 am. The link is:
- If you haven’t seen our presentation or want a refresher, do join us on Zoom. Add it to your calendar and share the link with friends! We hope that by presenting at GA, we can attract some UU partners from other churches for this project. There are Cofan people on the waiting list to get into Seguro Campesino, but we need an additional $9,000 to fully fund the program.
Thank you so very much for your continued support!
Best, Deborah Novgorodoff (for the International Justice Committee)