Quininde, Ecuador
New Ministry Improving Community Life
At age 17, Yeny Agila’s greatest desire was to become a nun in Africa, devoting her life to service as a missionary. But her parents encouraged her to continue her education at the university level. She followed through on her parents’ wishes, all the while practicing her family’s strict Catholic traditions.
During Yeny’s final years in university, her younger sister converted to Christianity, causing a great family conflict. “As a profoundly devoted Catholic family, we felt defiled, betrayed and most ashamed because our home town was small, and evangelicals were lowly regarded,” Yeny said.
But Yeny’s sister relentlessly spoke to her family about Jesus’ love and His sacrifice on the cross. While discussing religious differences with her sister, Yeny soon realized her knowledge of the Bible was nearly nonexistent. “Wanting to confront her, I decided to begin to study God’s Word on my own,” Yeny said. “How surprised I was when I discovered how little I knew of the life and overwhelming love of Jesus for each one of us,” she said. “What really caught my attention was that salvation was free! As a militant Catholic, I was always doing things to account merits to gain favor of God.”
Yeny visited her parish priest to seek his guidance on what she was learning in the Bible. But her strong faith in Catholic ideals couldn’t withstand the tugging she felt in her heart toward Jesus. “Although it was painful for me to leave my church, I felt deep peace when I started to attend an Evangelical church,” Yeny said.
Yeny grew in spiritual and professional maturity while working at Voz Andes Hospital, which is part of the health program of HCJB (Now Jesus Christ Blesses), a worldwide radio broadcasting station based in Quito, Ecuador. The station had many outreach service programs that Yeny became involved with. “My way of living as well as exercising my career took a totally different dimension,” she said. “They stopped being an end in itself to become an instrument to carry the love and word of God to those most in need in my country.”
In order to use her talents and abilities as best she could, Yeny got involved with many organizations. She has consulted for UNICEF, has been a family doctor in a Quito clinic, a technical health advisor for Compassion International, and a lecturer at Politechnic Salesian University. “These were opportunities that God used to mold me to serve Him,” she said. “All that learning I wish eagerly to share with men, women and children in the remote villages to empower them in their physical, economic, social and spiritual development.”
While Yeny was working in Quito, her husband, Ruperto, was living in Quininde, nearly four hours from Quito. This is an area on the west coast of Ecuador on the Pacific Ocean. It has a rainforest climate and is populated by Afro Ecuadorian people and locals. Yeny wanted her two daughters, Maria Inez and Natalie, to continue learning in a quality school, so she stayed with them in Quito. But as Yeny visited her husband and passed by the impoverished villages, she felt the burden on her heart to minister in Quininde, the area that bears the highest poverty index on the map of Ecuador. She started doing activities with mothers in the village and coordinated some extension clinics, but she felt it was not enough. “She also felt the need to teach them biblical principles and values for life as a way of witnessing Jesus to them,” said Apolos Landa, Luke Society Latin America Regional Coordinator.
When Yeny learned about the Luke Society and how it could enable her to move into the needy communities to do her work, she became excited. She moved herself and her children to the farm her husband already lived on and established the Luke Society in Ecuador.
The current situation of the area of Quininde is declining. There are five churches in the area, but they are not working together for the common good of the people. “Due to lack of vision, they cannot see the needs of their members,” said Yeny.
Children are not being educated well. When Luke Society Executive Director Dr. Wrede Vogel visited the area, the government-paid teacher was nowhere to be found. “The level of illiteracy reaches 16 percent while the national levels are around 9 percent,” said Yeny. “There is a functional illiteracy rate of 37.5 percent, and this too is the highest in relation to the national rate.”
“In the area of health, it is also a zone where teenage and pre-teenage motherhood is very high,” Yeny said. “Also there is fear that AIDS will be scourging this area in the next five years.” Inhabitants of the area also fight malaria, malnutrition and parasites. Although the problems seem overpowering, Yeny knows God will give her strength, wisdom and vision to see this community improve. “I wish to see families living in a more harmonious way and having better resources which enable them to have a better quality of life,” she said.
She wants to start with the churches, empowering them to envision an education program for the children. “With God’s help we can set up schools where children receive good, quality education and one that is centered on Christian values,” Yeny said. She also feels this would be a great outreach for the church to touch the lives of the children’s families.
Yeny also wants to turn health care around in the community. “The majority of doctors who work in the region consider ill people as a source of income, and treatment is merely mercenary,” she said. “It obliges people to get into debt to obtain costly medicines that sometimes are unnecessary.” Yeny’s goal is to set up a clinic for low cost family medical care staffed by Christian doctors. This clinic will be run in a way to impact the community, sending the message to other doctors that they cannot exploit their patients.
Along with improving clinical care in the community, Yeny wants to get other agencies to recognize the problems in rural Ecuadorian communities. The Voz Andes hospital she previously worked for is interested in supporting an initiative for a clinic for patients with AIDS. Red Viva, which is an organization that supports children at risk, would like to support Yeny’s work. “God has enabled me to get in touch with some NGOs, and I would like the churches and the community of Quininde to be able to benefit from these opportunities,” Yeny said.
Yeny’s first project has been to address the issue of family. The family structure in Quininde is disjointed. Both parents work, leaving the children at home to fend for themselves. Work is sporadic. Workers gather at labor agencies, which disperse jobs as they become available. Because the demand of jobs is so high, the pay is low. Most work for $5 for a 10 hour day without food.
Yeny believes she can help remedy this depressing cycle of little work and little pay. With the help of her husband, an agricultural engineer, she started an income generation program in the communities to supply more options to the working people. In order for the program to work, Yeny believes the community needs to work together. She meets regularly with women, telling them about the possibilities of the programs. The women tell their husbands, who also get excited, and now Yeny’s project seems to be working.
Her community development project is focused around organic passion fruit. The passion fruit is a climbing vine that clings by tendrils to a support structure. It grows 15 to 20 feet per year once it is established. The nearly round fruit grows up to three inches in diameter and has a similar taste to guava.
To begin the project, Yeny first chose people who exhibited leadership skills. Together with these people, she planted orchards of passion fruit near their homes. Although the plant is hardy, it needs to be fertilized regularly. Yeny instructed the people to save their household waste and store it to make compost.
While the people are happy to have a source of steady income in their own backyards, Yeny is also happy about the community health work being done by the project. The streets were previously littered with garbage and waste, a breeding ground for parasites and disease and a feeding ground for rats and other rodents. “Together, they planned to use organic waste and rubbish, which was previously all around the yards, in a cleverly motivated program for removing garbage for compost and so promote hygiene and cleanliness with economic motivation as well as teaching,” said Apolos. Once the gardens mature, they will bring the families $80 a month.
It is obvious God has placed Yeny in this position of leadership over these people. Her gentle nature invites men, women and children to approach her easily. Her seminars encourage discussion among and between families, allowing each to have their voice. Yeny is building relationships with each one, showing them God’s love and concern.
Dr. Agila has no one working for her, and she has no building for a clinic. Her staff is made of volunteers who are empowered by her vision. Because there is no clinic and no staff, Yeny is organizing the work by using people’s homes and supporting natural leaders to complete God’s will for that area, developing it into a thriving community.
Laura Eisenga