Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Dredge, volunteers from Charity Anywhere Foundation, left Monday, August 2, to drive an ambulance through Mexico to deliver it to the small hospital at La Tinta, Guatemala. Jesse is a student at Utah State University and is part of the Chapter of Charity Anywhere Foundation at the college. He completed an LDS mission in Guatemala in 2007 and speaks the language fluently. Paul Oja, of Malad, Idaho, will meet them at the border to assist them and help as a driver. The USU chapter of CAF has been working over the last few months gathering donations and having fund raisers to pay for the fuel and expenses necessary to make the trip. Charity Anywhere Foundation purchased the used ambulance from the city of Malad, Idaho earlier this spring.

Charity Anywhere Foundation is a local organization that has been working in Guatemala for over 10 years. They have been disturbed by the lack of urgent medical care for the mountain areas. Although there is a small functioning hospital in La Tinta, the people have to walk miles to get service. Previously, people were carried to the hospital in the back of a pickup furnished with a mattress. The addition of an ambulance will help to get medical attention to the desperately ill far quicker. It will also have emergency equipment on board to begin treatment. Medical personnel from Malad are flying down and will train the Guatemalan medical professionals on proper use of the ambulance and all its medical equipment.

Charity Anywhere Foundation has also organized and administer a Incaperina Nutrition Program which helps provide Incaperina, a nourishing drink fortified with nutrients and vitamins, for several hundred mothers and babies in the area around Senahu. Over the years CAF has helped reduce the malnutrition mortality rate from 20% to 1%. They work in cooperation with the World Health Organization in this area of chronic malnutrition and poor hygiene.

CAF Volunteers have also helped built an addition to a small school at San Nicholas. This allowed for more children to attend school where the government provides a nutritional meal for lunch.

Another group of CAF volunteers are in the Atitlan Lake area working to improve conditions at a school in Chimaltenango. This group of 15 from the University of Utah is headed by Aimee Hickey.

Charity Anywhere Foundation welcomes donations for this project and many others that are presently in operation. Further information can be found at charityanywhere.org