Ecuador is a country of 13 million people located in South America which encompass indegenous Cuechua people of the Andes, people of the Galapgaos Islands made famous from Charles Darwin, and those of the amazona region to the east of the Andes.
It was in 2006 that GEO was invited to Ecuador to help lauch a program for the underserved in Ecuador, providing access to ear care health that is essentially not avaible to those of the lower socio economic classes. Through an agreesive media campagine over 400 people from all over Ecuador came to Quito to be evaluated and over 75 people underwent sugeries at the Tierra Nueva Hospital in the southern part of the capital. It was during this visit to Quito that GEO united with CBM and also launched a partnership to help bulid hearing loss and prevention programs throughout South America.
In Ecuador, health care is provided by both the public and private health care sectors. Most public health care comes under the aegis of the Ministry of Public Health, although the armed forces, the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (Instituto Ecuatoriano de Seguridad Social--IESS), and a number of other autonomous agencies also contribute. The Ministry of Health covers about 80 percent of the population and IESS another 10 percent. Private health care, in hospitals equivalent to those in countires like England and the USA, is available in the cities of Quito and Guayaquil.
Ear disease is very comon in Ecuador where over 50% of the population is considered to live in poverty. Hearing loss secondary to chronic otitis media is the most common pathology followed by cholesteatomas and perforations. The Ecuadorian government has yet to realize that there is an epidemic in the area of ear disease in this country, and were if not for the participation of CBM, GEO, there would not have been the beginning of a grassroots program available to the people of this country. Due to political problems, Nahim Isaias Foundation is non functional and there are efforts to redevelop the program soon.