What's Happening Now

Imagine a hospital staff going on strike because supplies to care for their patients has been exhausted. Imagine suffering patients without medicines or necessary surgeries or even changes of simple dressings due to lack of essentials. That actually happened in Jos, Nigeria when hospital workers walked out, frustrated by the drain on consumable resources.

Angelo Velis is on a long-term mission—to encourage, motivate, and inspire the young people of Guatemala to reach their greatest potential and empower a generation to assume future leadership roles in their home country.  As Conscience International’s Community Development Director for Guatemala, Velis travels often to Central America to reinforce partner relationships and meet with agricultural and industry leaders who are lending their expertise and facilities to sanction youth programs leading to jobs and commissioning volunteer teams to come help train them.

The daily exodus of thousands of Iraqi refugees escaping to neighboring countries, or the relative safety of Iraq territories farther north, continues unabated. Leaving cities and villages they may never see again, families are fleeing for their lives, shattered by the loss of homes, livelihoods, schools, and hope, desperately escaping ISIS militants who have destroyed, burned, tortured, raped, and killed in their quest to capture city after city.  

Their days were spent studying in a one-room school, and they slept on the same hard mud floor at night -- boys on one side, girls on the other. 

When I stopped by Shambhuganj, Bangladesh on my way to the earthquake disaster in Nepal last month, the villagers met me with an amazing surprise. Recognizing in their own lives God’s blessings of support through Conscience International donors since 2012, they presented me with a gift of money to help someone suffering in Nepal. The people in Shambhuganj are 

Sometimes the simplest of ideas can produce the biggest results, and in the village of Shambouganj, Bangladesh, it is a low tech sanitation system that is helping prevent the high rates of childhood morbidity and mortality. Thanks to the generous contributions of donors, 25 units for families have been constructed so far, improving both the environment and the health of villagers.

In the highlands of San Marcos, Guatemala, a cold and remote city nestled within the Sierra Madre mountain range and the Central American Volcanic Arc (CAVA), Conscience International is fighting joblessness and inspiring youth at the grassroots level by supporting a training program in woodworking, a vocation particularly appropriate for this region where a variety of wood species, including aromatic cedar, is a native commodity.

Lauren Kennedy is on her first trip to Ethiopia with her parents, Toni and Dr. Ted Belanger of the Texas Back Institute (Dallas area) who is leading a Conscience International medical team to perform spinal surgeries primarily on young people.  Her parents have made several annual trips to this nation bringing hope and health to many of the country’s poorest. The following excerpts are from Lauren’s blog post.