Our Facility in Riobamba 

        Generosity, Compassion and Professional Excellence

Use this button to donate to a Fund sponsored byYHB Charitable Endowment to support Clinica Dulce Refugio. 97% of your tax-deductible donation is used to care for children.

The Children We Serve

Chimborazo Province is an area of unique interest and great need. The population is largely indigenous with a unique culture in terms of language, religion, family and social structure, work, music and dance.  It is also an area of widespread poverty, unemployment and hopelessness. Over 25% of the adult population of Ecuador has now fled and many come from this area. Many children are left behind with other family, friends or just abandoned.  Child traficking is a significant risk to these children as is malnutrition and lack of medical care.  The nearby erupting volcano, Tungurahua, adds other health risks as does the widespread problem of water quality and sanitation.  The economy is largely subsistence farming, families are very large and, because most children are born at home, infant mortality is very high. 

What We do

Clinica "Dulce Refugio" is a free children's health center located high in the Ecuadorian Andes in Riobamba, Ecuador. The clinic provides general health screening, wound and dental care, prescribes and distributes medicines, organizes mobile clinics in outlying communities and refers patients to local hospitals. In late 2012 we will begin performing general surgery and deliveries on our new surgical and patient care floor. We also operate our own lab for blood and other tests at no charge. The clinic opened in August of 2007 and treated 3,000 patients in its first year. In January, 2009 we opened our new dental clinic and have treated thousands of children to date.   We serve a largely indigenous population in an area marked by significant poverty with limited or no access to health care.  Infant mortality is a large problem and we look forward to helping mothers to give birth in a clean and safe environment rather than in their homes.  Our hope is that our Clinic will be a secure and well equipped base to host teams of foreign surgeons who wish to travel to Ecuador to do humanitarian work.

Click here to view more photos of our Clinic, our children and scenes of Ecuador.