#SmallBusinessRelief
As many of you know, the New Life Birthing Center has been raided with thousands of dollars worth of their inventory unconstitutionally confiscated. They have been given fines of around $7,000 and also have to pay for a lawyer. New Life is a 501 (c) (3) tax exempt non-profit organization offering FREE maternity care at their centers to ALL mothers and babies in need. They also offer routine care for women who are not pregnant. During COVID, New Life has become increasingly busy, serving more women and families than ever before. Not just with healthcare, but also with food and clean water programs- here inEcuador and all over the world. They fund COVID food relief programs in Zambia,The Philippines and Ecuador as well as support humane maternity care in several parts of Africa and the Dominican Republic. COVID has been difficult enough on them with the loss of regular donations, they need your help to continue the mission.
If you are in a position to donate, please consider doing so! We don't want to lose such a valuable asset to our community.
Below is the story of their raid pulled from their Facebook page:
Friends, today we are asking for your prayers and your support. This will be long, please read to the end and share this post with everyone who cares about the work we do, bringing free compassionate evidence based maternity care to women and families that would otherwise not be cared for.
As some of our team was settling back in at home for some much needed rest after our church trip to the US, we received a call from one of our Midwives, that our clinic in Loja was being inspected by the Ecuadorian government.
We really didn’t think much of it, we are inspected all the time and assumed it was just the Ministry of Health. We have a generally good relationship with the Ministry of Health and have been working with them on several community health projects.
Just a few minutes later, we received another call from our Midwives at the Vilcabamba center. The Ecuadorian government was there also.
We found it curious that they were there inspecting on a day we weren’t open to the public. We did have staff there because a beautiful mama was upstairs in the birth suite, working hard to bring her baby earthside.
That curiosity and calm quickly turned to heartbreak as we were informed that they weren’t just there to inspect as usual and this wasn’t the Ministry of Health.
This was a raid.
Why would they raid both of our southern Ecuador facilities? They know us. We work together to help the communities and far off forgotten villages.
We asked just this, and asked that they talk to our contacts at their own Ministry of Health.
As it goes though in many corrupt governments, the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
They didn’t care about our work with the ministry, the fact that a mother was in labor upstairs, that we feed the community or that we serve many hundreds of families each month for FREE, families that would otherwise go without humanized medical and maternity care.
They destroyed our clinics. Overturning everything, leaving it all in disarray.
They cleaned us out.
Over 7000 items seized. Prenatal vitamins, herbs, cranberry pills, turmeric, essential oils, herbal tinctures, other natural remedies- all gone.
They even took items such alcohol pads, breast pumps and gloves that were donated by foreign volunteers.
Not only did they seize our inventory, they completely shut down our center in Loja.
We have no re-opening date and no details on how, if or when we may be able to open again.
By the grace of God, our Vilcabamba center is still open. This is our busiest center, but it’s also quite far for many women to travel to, if they were using our Loja center for their care.
So far we are facing roughly $7,000 in fines, the loss of our supplies and the closure of an entire center.
In order to increase the fines and further extort our organization, they opened every bottle and package we had and fined us per pill, per alcohol pad etc.
Everyday it’s a fight to change minds, lower the local 85% Cesarean rate and bring evidence based holistic care to a country of maternity violence and antiquated medical treatment.
We are 3 years into this challenge and are finally making a drastic difference in the birth and health culture- I have to assume this is why we are being attacked.
The news station published a hit piece on us in regards to this raid, but the local voices rose up! The comments on the news story, the emails, phone calls and messages for us- all in our favor and with outrage at the government.
Not a single negative thing was said about our work or our organization, by the community we serve, whose voices are what matter.
We have since found out that this branch of the government has legal action against them, due to their extortion of independent medical clinics and labs. They have raided multiple locations all over Ecuador, shut them down and only allowed them to re-open after thousands and thousands of dollars is paid- money they pocket.
Multiple attorneys have reached out to us offering their assistance. We have contracted with one who is the best constitutional attorney in the country of Ecuador.
We have joined a class action lawsuit against this branch of government and our case will also be heard in constitutional court very soon.
When we win, we will be forever protected from fraudulent government overreach.
This litigation will pave the way for true operational freedom and autonomy for all independent medical facilities, Midwifery centers and labs in Ecuador.
We will not give up, all women and families in Ecuador deserve to choose their care provider and have quality evidence based care.
Now we need your help. Legal fees are mounting by the day and we can’t fight this fight without you. We continue to give free care in Vilcabamba and in private homes, and we are busier than ever.
Please pray for us and consider giving a donation to our GoFundMe crowdfund to pay for our legal expenses while we fight this fight for the women of Ecuador.
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
— Genesis 50:20
In God’s hands intended evil becomes eventual good.