Purpose Statement - What drives us each day

***To abide in God to be an expression of His love to those we serve***

Mission Statement - What we strive for each day

Frequently Asked Questions

Give

To give healthcare providers in Guatemala the medicines and resources they need to serve the poorest communities

What are the origins of “giving” providers medical supplies for free?
All Americans are familiar with the thousands of charitable organizations - aside from numerous programs underwritten by the US government - that offer the poorest of their country goods and services for free. In its earliest stages of development Vine felt the same assistance could and should be offered to the peoples in developing countries - especially if the goods are curated from America's excess. Not being able to touch each person individually, Vine focused on the many ultra-rural healthcare clinics serving the poorest communities - starting in Guatemala.
Do providers put in requests for medicine?
Yes, although we aren’t always able to fill them. We choose from what our suppliers have available at any given time, and over time we work to stock a variety of important medicines. In recent years, a few Vine donors have provided funding to ensure certain high-value medical interventions will stay available for our most trusted partners.
Do you deliver to the providers?
We distribute much more medicine and supplies in a year than we could physically deliver to each partner. We bring supplies to our facility in Guatemala, and providers from all over the country make appointments to come pick it up as needed. As part of our relationship with providers we make periodic visits, so we’ll bring along as many supplies as we can fit in our vehicle. But the vast majority of what we distribute goes out in vehicles belonging to (and in some cases rented by) the providers. (Instead of shopping carts, providers use old gurneys we have for them at our warehouse.)
Where do providers in Guatemala get these medicines if not from Vine?
Providers have an operating budget that includes medicine and supplies, and most clinics offer services for a nominal fee. But the nature of their ministries is that they serve under resourced communities, or at least they serve some patients who can’t afford medicine. So in some cases, Vine is the only option. We’re often told, “without Vine, I can diagnose, but I can’t treat.”

Healthcare Providers

Give healthcare providers in Guatemala the medicines and resources they need to serve the poorest communities

Who classifies as healthcare “providers” in Guatemala?
Doctors, physicians, PA’s, NP’s, midwives, nurses, etc. we call providers. The majority are MDs, and a few are licensed nurse practitioners. We also have relationships with healthcare providers who are not doctors: midwives (we provide them with OB-GYN equipment and prenatal vitamins), disability specialists (we provide then with wheelchairs to be custom fitted to individual families), and registered nurses (Some of our nurse partners have sustained long term ministries and we provide them with medicine under the responsibility of a licensed physician). If Vine has a long term relationship with them, we refer to them as partners. Missions, clinics, practices, even full service hospitals are usually set up with Vine through one doctor. Almost all of the practices we work with were formed as pioneering ministries and are supported by faith communities, so we often use the term missions.
Who are these providers? Where do they come from?
Most of them are Guatemalans who received their medical education in Guatemala City. They see how most of their neighbors were locked out of Guatemala’s formal healthcare system. Instead of a comfortable medical practice, many of our partners have chosen instead to live by or in the poor communities they serve. Some returned to the communities they grew up in. The majority of the providers we serve are Guatemalan, although there are some foreign (US, Korea, Canada) providers serving in mission clinics.
Do providers have to meet certain criteria to receive the free 'medicines & resources'?
Yes. We personally know every provider whose hand we put our medicine in. These organizations receive medicine from Vine International only if they operate under the responsibility of a licensed physician whose in-date credentials we have on file, and the organization itself is legally recognized in Guatemala - again with in-date paperwork in our files. In addition, Vine’s practice is to spend time in the field with each organization as they carry out their mission, to make sure they are aligned with Vine’s mission of serving the poor.
How do you screen or assess these providers?
Apart from requiring current medical and legal credentials, Vine also spends time getting to know providers personally, as well as hearing about them second hand if we can. We occasionally have to stop inviting providers to the warehouse for certain reasons.
Do you ever turn providers away?
Yes. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes people working in healthcare or missions earn a bad reputation. When necessary, we cut relationships off, or we decline to start them.
Are the providers missionaries or related to some religious cause?
Almost all of our providers tell us that they’re motivated by a desire to love and serve people in need, and they do it out of a call from God. That’s Vine’s motivation too. But we also have a few partners who are properly credentialed, that serve the poor, and are practicing with excellence. Their motivations may be different from ours but their work and service to the poor aligns with Vine’s, and we’re happy to support them.

Guatemala

Give healthcare providers in Guatemala the medicines and resources they need to serve the poorest communities

Why Guatemala? Why only Guatemala?
Guatemala is where we started and where we know people doing good work. Woody Woodson moved his family there in the 1990s to work in the western highlands, and that’s when and where many of our relationships began. We have worked in neighboring countries after disasters and emergencies, but the long term relationships we have are mostly in Guatemala, so that’s where we’ve stayed.
Why doesn't the government do this?
Guatemala’s Ministry of Health administers hospitals (in the city) and health outposts (in remote areas). The hospitals are underfunded and overfilled, and the health outposts are worse. Wealthy Guatemalans can pay for private care; poor Guatemalans can’t count on government health care.
Do you help providers in rural, suburban, or urban Guatemala?
All of the above. We help providers who serve the neediest communities, who are found all over Guatemala. Our partners serve communities on the coast, in the highlands, in the city, near farming country - everywhere.
Who else besides Vine are helping this way?
We don’t know of anybody else whose mission is to know, support, and supply the ministries we are already serving. We know organizations who import medical resources to Guatemala (and other countries) but who do not maintain relationships with local ministries and may not fully understand where those resources go. We know organizations who help specific ministries but are not able to find/ship/import medicine and supplies. Other people do things that look similar to what we do, but we don’t know anyone who combines the relationships, the wide area network, the spending leverage, and the logistical system that we offer.
Have you seen a change there in the years you’ve been doing this?
In 1993, even basic medical care seemed out of reach for most Guatemalans living outside city centers. Vine started by supporting the local providers we knew, and by bringing medical teams from the US to help meet some of the urgent needs. As the number of skilled local providers serving in poor communities has increased, and as we’ve gotten to know more of them, we focus more on helping enable them to do their work.
Why are so many Guatemalans coming here?
The US represents an opportunity for work and a life that is not possible for many in Central America. For many people, the choice is to stay and watch a family go hungry, or leave and feed them from a distance.
Are patients just glad to get everything?
Some patients receive medicine through Vine that saves their lives, or that profoundly alters them. They are grateful! Usually to God first, then to their doctor, and then if they hear how it was sent to Guatemala, they’re grateful to Vine. What usually makes patients the most grateful is to hear how the medicine and supplies were sent by people they’ve never met but who wanted to be involved in their lives as a blessing.
How big is Guatemala?
Guatemala’s land mass is similar to Tennessee’s, or Virginia’s. It’s population is thought to be about 17M, a little smaller than New York State’s 20M but larger than Tennessee’s 9M.
Is it safe?/Is it as dangerous as it sounds?
Guatemala’s crime rate is relatively high, and the US State Department advises that “Violent crime such as extortion, murder, armed robbery, carjacking, narcotics trafficking and gang activity” are common in Guatemala. Local police may lack the resources to respond effectively to criminal incidents resulting in a low arrest and conviction rate.

Medicines & Resources

Give healthcare providers in Guatemala the medicines and resources they need to serve the poorest communities

Where do Vine’s "medicines and resources" come from?
Most of the medicine comes through MAP International, an organization in Georgia that acts as a clearinghouse for medicine manufacturers. MAP maintains relationships with pharmaceutical companies to collect in-date medicine and to offer it to Vine for a small fee.
Joni and Friends offers us refurbished wheelchairs, which we are able to distribute to our partners for only the shipping, importing, and distribution costs.
Orphan Grain Train in Nebraska, and Mercy Meals partners in Johnson City and Missouri offer many tons of packaged emergency meals each year, which we are able to distribute to our partners for only the shipping, importing, and distribution costs.
Samaritan’s Purse, DeRoyal, Covenant Hospitals, Remote Area Medical, and many other organizations have contributed supplies, medicine, and equipment over the years.
Can you get any kind of medicine?
We don’t handle controlled narcotics, and we’re careful about how much of any specialized medicine we ship/import/distribute. But otherwise, we have worked with most widely-needed medicines.
It’s expired meds, right? The “sell-by dates” are just a marketing thing, right?
It’s illegal to import expired medicine (so we don’t). We occasionally import short-dated medicine, but only when we’ve discussed it with our partners and we are confident of the need and of the likelihood we can get it in providers’ and patients’’ hands before the use-by date.
Who pays for them?
Vine pays (relatively) small fees to acquire medicine. Vine also pays to ship, import, and distribute medicine and supplies. Many clinics have a schedule of fees for consultations and prescriptions, but the amounts are nominal and are routinely ignored with patients who are unable to pay.
How does Vine collect the supplies?
We arrange for an ocean cargo container to arrive at the originating facility, and after it’s loaded we bring the container through the shipping and importing process. When the container arrives at our facility in Guatemala, we use a forklift to put pallets on our shelves.
How does Vine get them into Guatemala?
If it sounds tricky, it’s because it is. We coordinate with shipping companies (like Dole, who rents us empty banana containers headed back to farms in Guatemala), with Guatemala’s tax authority and Ministry of Health, and dozens of others to complete the many steps necessary to import to Guatemala.
Why do you give out food in a country whose main export is food?
It was a surprise to us too, when we first did it! A group of Nebraska farmers (Orphan Grain Train) offered us a container of emergency meals, and because one of our Guatemalan partners indicated they worked with a chronically malnourished community, we took it. We learned from our network of partners that aside from high rates of chronic malnutrition, Guatemala experiences temporary, regional famines, which are brought about by changing weather patterns. Hunger moves around, in other words, and unfortunately we’ve always found families in urgent need of food.

Poorest Communities

Give healthcare providers in Guatemala the medicines and resources they need to serve the poorest communities

What is the medical system like down there?
A small minority of Guatemalans can pay for services at private hospitals and clinics. Most Guatemalans are theoretically covered by the national health system, but its hospitals and clinics are perpetually underfunded and understaffed. Medical care of any kind is that much less available to Guatemalans living away from city centers. For the majority of people who receive Vine medicine and supplies, their provider is a volunteer (not connected to the public health system or the paid/private network) and is the only provider they are able to see.
Do providers operate out of brick & mortar buildings?
Many providers start small, meeting patients when and where there’s a need. Some move to a building as a central location, and often it’s a room in the provider’s family home. Over time most ministries rent, buy, or build a clinic building, but there are a few whose central mission is to travel regularly to remote and rural populations where there is no other medical provider.
Are the providers fixed or are they mobile?
Most of the providers we work with are based in an office or clinic, but they recognize the needs of nearby communities and make regular visits away from the central location.
Do providers ever do home visits?
Yes. Most of the providers we work with build into their schedules time to attend to emergencies and special cases where patients aren’t able to travel.