Faith in Practice – Helping the world one victim at a time.
Faith in Practice is a great non-profit group based out of Houston, Texas that is aiming to help the people of Guatemala by bringing much needed medical help to them. Faith in Practice was founded by Todd Collier while he was traveling in Guatemala in 1991. While down in Antigua, Guatemala Todd become very aware of the poor medical condition that plagued the country. He was inspired by what he saw and his faith to bring medical help to the people of Guatemala. Upon returning to Houston Todd was able to organize a surgical team to take back to Antigua in 1993. Ever since then Faith in Practice has been hard at work bring volunteers and medical help to the poorest parts of Guatemala.
As Faith in Practice has grown, so has the scope of what they do. So what exactly does Faith in Practice do? Their website states that their mission is to serve the poor of Guatemala through short-term medical mission trips that take an integrated approach to care. They achieve this through using their volunteers, which consist of medical professionals and support personnel from all over the world, to see more than 22,000 patients a year. The astonishing and moving thing is that the volunteers have to pay for their own travel to Guatemala. It speaks volumes about the people who are willing to sacrifice their time and money to help people in need. As a company, Faith in Practice relies on the generosity of strangers and other organizations to help fund their programs. Volunteers are encouraged to share what they are doing with their friends and family to help fund the program and their trip. Over the years Faith in Practice has implemented many programs in Guatemala since its inception. Some of them include a preventative and restorative dental program, a hearing program, cervical cancer screening program and many more surgical, dental and medical programs.
I would like to emphasize that, while Faith in Practice is a faith based group, the volunteers don’t necessarily have to be religious orientated. Faith in Practice is about helping the people of Guatemala that are in dire need of medical care and knowledge. Faith in Practice is a great opportunity for traveling medical professional to escape the more business orientated medical world that can at times seem overwhelming. Faith in Practice allows people to teach and help people who truly need the help. Many volunteers enjoy the satisfying feeling of helping those in need and bringing hope to those who might not have any. If you are at all interested I encourage you to look them up or visit their site FaithInPractice.org to see how you can help out.
Vance Hobbes is a freelance writer and former medical researcher. Hobbes writes about many facets of the medical field, and works with CompHealth. When he’s not writing the day away, he spends his free time tending to his prizewinning garden and attending any basketball game he can find.
