El Salvador, Ateos - Mission Dates: March 14-22, 2025
Mission Purpose – To bring compassionate care and the message of the Gospel to the people of Ateos, in El Salvador.
Mission History: The first mission trip to Ateos, El Salvador was in 2015. To date, HHMM has conducted 7 missions to this region of the world. A total of 203 missionaries have attended to the needs of over 11,300 patients.
The overall impact has been positive, we have been able to develop good relationships with many people in the region. Our future plans include continuing to work in Ateos, Sacacoyo, Cuisnahuat, and San Pablo Tacachico. Our team has been well received by the communities in need. We have the support of the local Catholic Church, and the Health Ministry continues to grant us the necessary permits.
Local Needs – The mission setting is both Urban and rural. Local maladies include: Hypertension, diabetes, respiratory and gastric infections, skin diseases, etc.
Additional Services: Helping Hands Missionaries have teamed up with international and local water filtration companies to offer the people of the region cleaner drinking water thus helping with the Providing prevention of gastrointestinal infections.
Non-Surgical: This is not a surgical mission.
Types of specialties needed for this mission:
- Family Medicine Providers (Physicians, Physician Assistants (PA's), Nurse Practitioners (NP’s)
- Dentistry: Dentists and Dental Hygienists
- Optometrists
- Pharmacists and pharmacy Techs
- Nursing: RN’s and LVN’s
- Physical Therapist and Chiropractor
- Counseling
- Natural Family Planning Instructors
- Non-medical volunteers
- Spanish Translators
Climate
The climate is tropical; warm days and nights: Hi: 90° Lo: 69° average.
Mission Chaplain
Thank you for your interest in serving as a Missionary Chaplain. Upon commitment to a mission, you will receive a list of responsibilities and duties, which we require of each Chaplain. If you have any questions regarding the program please contact Lupita Assad.
See the application page for more information.
Mission Leadership
Medical Director: Michael Kloess, MD
Home: Mount Horeb, WI
Missions Attended: 8
Years serving as Medical Director: 4
Meet the Medical Director
Medical Director: Michael Kloess
Missions Attended: 8
Years serving as Medical Director: 4
What inspires you most about serving on a mission?
Getting to know the people of Ateos and the surrounding communities is certainly inspiring to me, but I have to say the one thing that keeps me coming back each year is the chance to work with my fellow missionaries and provide an opportunity for a new missionary to experience a life-changing event. To see the awe and wonder of a first-time missionary as they experience a new culture, a new way of life and the extreme need of those we serve helps me to open my heart to our brothers and sisters in El Salvador.
What is your hope for other missionaries who attend?
Each missionary who attends the Ateos mission has a chance to grow, as a person, as a friend and as a man or woman of faith. Our mission strives to keep God at the center of our focus giving each missionary a chance to grow in their personal relationship with Christ through prayer and sacraments. The goal is to take that personal faith to the wider community, first to other missionaries through the friendships made as being part of the team and then as a united team to take the faith we share to our sisters and brothers of Ateos. Providing medical services and water filters is only the vehicle for building lasting relationships with people around the world, around the country and in our own hometown.
What is your most memorable mission experience?
During my third mission trip to Ateos I was walking across the grounds of St. Anthony de Padua parish when a young lady approached me trying to get my attention. The young lady looked familiar and I must have seen her on a previous mission. She had an infant on her hip and she was trying to tell me something about her baby. Because of my limited Spanish, I rely on translators when I am on the mission trip. I was able to flag down a translator and who related to me what the young lady was trying to say. The young lady wanted to say thank you. I indeed did see her during the mission trip the previous year. She had reported a year ago about the difficulties she and her husband have had achieving a pregnancy. The lady reported to me that with the medical care and advice she received, along with the medication we provided her, she was able to conceive. Through the translator, the young lady was introducing me to her 3 month old son and saying thank to me and our team of missionaries for making it possible for her to be a mom. It is humbling to think that by saying yes to serving on a mission team God has used me to bring another soul into the world. Every soul we touch while on mission is another soul growing closer to God.
- Michael Kloess, MD
Meet the Missionaries
The reason why I love doing service work is because of the fact that I know I have tried to improve this world. I can‘t cure cancer but I can put a smile on a face."
There is something so contagious about giving back to the community, but I am not here to blab about myself, I am here to send forth the message that great things are happening in this troubled world. Read more
Ana Caballero
Meet the Missionaries
It has truly been a life-changing experience for me... I always return from the missions with a renewed energy."
My favorite memory while on a mission was in San Juan Sacatapequez, Guatemala in October 2007, I believe that God placed us there for a very specific reason. We were set up in a remote clinic in the hills... Read more
Michael Brezinsky, MD