Focus on children leads Kadlec provider to Guatemala

Athalia Clower has always wanted to help people.

And she has done so for more than 25 years.

“I have been a certified physician assistant (PA-C)

since 1993,” said Clower in an email interview. “I started working for Kadlec

during March of 2010.”

For Clower, this has been a high calling.

But so has her charity work.

She said in January 2010, she and her husband Randy,

also a PA-C, stayed in a remote village in the jungle of Guatemala, “training a

team of Kekchi Indians on first aid, assessment of conditions that need

transport to the hospital (which is about six hours away by motorized vehicle),

evaluation and treatment of dehydration in infants and adults, basic prenatal

care, and other helpful medical/community health topics.”

For several years, the Clowers have been part of a group

of Tri-Citians and a Korean water engineer who have made multiple trips to the

jungle of Guatemala to take medicines, eye care, the Bible and clean

water. 

It became clear to the group that it needed more of a

presence in the country to make a bigger impact.  

And for the Clowers, this became an even higher calling.

It’s called The Ezra Project, and it’s run in a small

town in Guatemala. 

“One day in 2011, God told me to start a nonprofit,” Clower

said. “I thought it was to have medical missions to go to Sudan. Usually we had

the medical missions through our church (Richland Baptist Church), but Sudan

would be too much liability for anybody.”

Guatemala became the goal.

So in 2011, The Ezra Project was formed in the United

States. At the same time, the group formed El Proyecto Ezra de Guatemala to

have a legal identity in Guatemala.

Guatemala is in Central America, and it shares borders

with Mexico, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador; the Pacific and Atlantic oceans

touch its beaches.

It also is a poor country.

Clower said she was offered at one point an abandoned

baby to bring back from Guatemala, and she thought it would be better to have a

home for many of these children. 

Many babies in Guatemala are abandoned after birth. They

are found in fields, latrines or if they are born in the hospital, they are

never picked up. Many infants and children die of pneumonia and diarrheal

infections. 

“A guy offered our church a piece of land to build the

home,” Clower said. “The church thought it would be too much liability to

absorb, and we decided Ezra (project) could get the land to work on the

home. The land fell through.”

Clower said her group encountered opposition from

indigenous groups who requested water, home and electricity in exchange of

allowing use of the roads. 

“We decided they would never be satisfied and we left

the land to go rent a house in town,” Clower said. “This is a very common

occurrence. Roads are blocked, you are locked in and have to meet their

demands.”

The Ezra Project has four missions:

• Get water into the village.
• Set up medical and dental services there.
• Open a home for mothers with children so babies aren’t left out to die due to a lack of money and a place to stay.
• Teach people the Bible and give them the knowledge of salvation.

The last seven years have been a grind.

The group has worked with Guatemalan government agencies

to obtain a license to be able to provide the home for abandoned babies and

children—finally getting the license late in January. 

The paperwork and other requirements were quite

extensive; and the daily administration of the home involves a lot of

procedures and documentation. The license is very much needed to avoid

accusations of kidnapping; and to have a legitimate, accountable, transparent,

and legal presence in both countries. 

In May, the group was going to open the doors, then

found out there is no water in the entire town.

“Water is used as a political weapon,” Clower said. “So,

our water engineer friend, Daniel Kwon from ACOWI (A Cup of Water

International) gifted us two well digging machines that we plan to use after

elections are over. Primary elections were June 16 and a second round (took)

place on Aug. 11. The political situation is another long story.”

Clower said the group just bought a much-needed truck.

“A mechanic friend checked seven trucks before we bought No. 8. We were looking

to buy a used vehicle to go back and forth from our town to the city (Guatemala

City),” Clower said. “Due to the roads, which are pretty steep and full of

holes, we need a standard, diesel, 4-by-4. The weather is very hot. The traffic

is crazy.  Looking around, people work very hard, they are always

smiling and friendly, although facing many hardships.”

Yet the project is so close to reality that Clower left

her job at the West Richland Primary Clinic in July for Guatemala.

She says The Ezra Project is now in Guatemala to open

The Isaiah 58 Home.  

“We will have to make more modifications to our small

rental so we can store and purify large quantities of water,” she said. “In the

home, we also have a very simple one-room clinic.”  

Clower said the group is licensed to house seven

children up to the age of 10.

“After the government sees how we are doing, they can

allow us to have more,” she said. “We made the paperwork and arrangement with

the government that if the children are or become 10, they can remain in the

home.”

While she will be spending most of her time at this

clinic, Clower says she will eventually come back to the Tri-Cities for short

stays.

“We have a saying, ‘Guatemala, where plans go to die,’ ”

Clower said. “Fortunately, God always turns things to better than we had

planned. As of now, the main goal is to get the water system ready so we can

have kids. 

“When people from our group can come and supervise while

I am gone, I will go (back) to work,” she continued. “I have an amazing husband

that hope is with me soon, either here or there.”

Meanwhile, she knows this is what she was meant to do.

“Anyone who comes to Guatemala and sees the situation

some of the children face would have a heart to intervene,” Clower said. “The

Ezra Project is not only me. We have a board of directors and many donors who

believe, with God’s help, we can make a difference for the children, their

families and community. 

“The Ezra Project is the result of God leading a group

of ordinary people step by step to help children in our little town close to

the mountains,” Clower said. “If it is one child he has in mind, it is OK.

Giving one child a childhood, food, a home, love, and truth is worth our

efforts, which are very enjoyable and exciting.”

The Ezra Project: ezra-Guatemala.org; Facebook.