New Life in Los Chilitos
written by Tiffani Schmitz, MSM, RN
Los Chilitos isn’t on the map.
Most people who live in Guatemala have never heard of this
village. Certainly few from the United States have heard of
it. There is nothing special about this village. It isn’t home to
anyone famous, any remarkable inventions, or any historical
events. It is desolate, desperate, and dirty.
If this village is so unremarkable, how has it captured the hearts
of those from New Life Chapel in West Chester, Ohio?
In January 2013, IWU SON alumna Tiffani Schmitz, MSM, RN
traveled to Los Chilitos with her husband, Neil. They were to
survey the needs of the village and develop a project plan, partnering with Hunger Relief International, for New Life Chapel’s
summer mission trip. What they encountered was unexpected
and life-changing.
The community of Los
Chilitos is located in the
arid region of Cuilapa,
Santa Rosa, Guatemala.
It is 45 miles from Guatemala City, off a largely
unpaved mountain road.
There are 160 households in the community
with a total population
of 893. Nearly all residents live in extreme
poverty with inadequate food and water.
While the Schmitzes were visiting the
village, they met the
Cortez family. Señor
The author met the Cortez family in Los
Chilitos, Guatemala. Photo by Tiffani Schmitz. Cortez is the father of
five children. He worked
for a plantation as a crop harvester. This work is done by hand
with a machete. On a good day, he might earn $1 to $2 dollars
per day. This was barely enough to get by, but he and his wife
made it work—until the accident.
In most homes in Los Chilitos, the family stove is an open
campfire in the kitchen. Cortez suffered a life-altering spinal
cord injury while chopping down a tree limb for firewood. This
injury left him a paraplegic and the family lost its only source of
income. When the Schmitzes met him, Cortez informed them
that his children had nothing to eat but leaves from the trees.
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School of Nursing SPRING 2014
The weight of the revelation shared by Cortez was overwhelming. Tiffani remembered Matthew 25:40, “Whatever you did for
one of the least of these, you did for me,” and Proverbs 21:13,
“If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry
out and not be answered.” Taking these scriptures to heart, she
developed a plan for a return trip that summer.
In July 2013, 42 people from New Life Chapel went to Los
Chilitos to serve the community in loving, practical ways.
When the church team arrived, the villagers were skeptical.
They had seldom seen blonde hair or blue eyes or heard English
spoken. They didn’t know what to make of the tall, muscular
football players from the Midwest exiting the buses. But smiles,
soccer balls, and good old-fashioned manual labor quickly
broke cultural barriers.
One of New Life’s projects was a nurse-led clinic. The team of
four nurses and four ancillary healthcare workers wa