Bridges to Healing, Part I
San Diego Affiliate Erin Rickwa, Founder/ Executive Director of Bridges to Healing Intl.,
tells her story to Hugh Menton, editor.
Bridges to Healing was founded on the belief that children living in orphanages have a right to live with dignity, access to appropriate medical care, and someone in their lives who is making a concerted effort to alleviate the pain they experience because of illness and disease. We believe it is critical that the children know that they are SEEN, which we hope communicates to them that they are loved, special, and important regardless of their disabilities, abandonment, or illness. I realized that with a very small amount of money, collaboration with local health care providers, and a focus on one individual child, change can happen.
Bridges to Healing provides grants for health care to sick and disabled children living in orphanages. We have three main programs. First, we pay for an orphanage to hire local, full time staff nurses who are in charge of the children’s health care. Second, we pay for screening labs for all the children, as well as any medications and treatments needed. Third, we provide funding for individual children who may need surgeries, therapies, imaging studies, physical therapy, etc. We create a BRIDGE between the orphanage and local medical resources.
First steps: The original idea of Bridges to Healing started in 1995, when I witnessed the severe lack of medical attention for orphans in Bolivia.
I worked for two years as a Salesian Lay Missioner at a very poor government orphanage where about 100 children lived. The children received no medical care—no emergency care for burns or broken bones from abuse, no screening for infectious diseases, and no vaccinations. They lacked of basic hygiene because there was no money to buy soap to wash hands or clothes. Some children were so traumatized, they didn’t speak. The babies were rocking back and forth to comfort themselves. It honestly was very overwhelming and sad, and it was hard to know where to even begin.
We started very small and asked permission to take one child at a time for medical care.
I’ll tell you the story of one special little girl in that orphanage; we will call her Claudia. Claudia, two years old, was severely malnourished and had open sores all over her body. She was very, very sad all the time and just looked very sick. I got permission to take Claudia to the doctor, where she tested positive for Strongyloides, a parasite which I later learned is on the list of the WHO’s Neglected Tropical Diseases (“neglected” in terms of research and treatment because they mostly affect the world’s poorest people). After she received treatment, she transformed into a completely different child, smiling, and laughing and running around with the other children.
I wanted to establish an organization dedicated to creating a "bridge" between the orphanage and local medical resources.
I had spent time in many different types of orphanages all over Bolivia and, while there was a range in terms of resources, they shared similar challenges: too many children being cared for by too few staff, a significant number of disabled children that had been abandoned, and high rates of malnutrition and parasite infections.
I went to graduate school to get my Masters in Social Work and spent the time designing a program for providing effective health care to children in very poor orphanages. This eventually became Bridges to Healing, a 501c3, nonprofit organization. The current Board of Directors are all Maryknoll Affiliates.
Be sure to read “Bridges to Healing, Part II” in our January/February 2024 NSFA, to learn of the obstacles Erin faced and the next steps she took as she expanded Bridges to Healing to Tanzania.