Born Out Of Necessity

Simon’s desire to spearhead this campaign came from a tragic personal experience he had while on a Shelter mission trip: “On the morning of February 29, 2024, my five friends and I ambled down a beautiful trail to the last build site of our Shelter mission trip near San Vicente, El Salvador. We’d had a wonderful week up to that point, and we were looking forward to helping 83-year-old Maria Teresa realize the dream of a new home as her previous home was infested and collapsing. The garden was beautiful to say the least with butterflies flitting around. Her community’s name translates into English as “Paradise.” As usual, we gathered for prayer to bless her and the team, the build process, and the house itself. An hour later, all our lives were changed. Maria’s nephew, Fabrizio, coughed a few times and collapsed. With a nurse and a border security officer on the team, we responded quickly with first aid, but we were soon aware that Fabrizio needed CPR. We called for professional medical help, but it took almost an hour of compressions from four people before “help” finally arrived. We were provided with a stretcher to transport Fabrizio up the trail to a waiting vehicle.

Since this time, the Shelter staff has elevated their first aid training, protocols, and equipment. However, we believe we can still do more. On my return home, I felt called to investigate the prospect of providing AEDs to Shelter. You can find AEDs in every airport, hockey arena, many schools, and malls around our countries. They are easy to use and are proven to save lives. It’s unlikely that one of these devices would have reversed the outcome for Fabrizio due to our remote location — the access to it and the time for support to arrive. However, it could have. The true hope is never to need the devices. The reality is that they are now affordable and available in multiple languages. Our aim is to raise the funds to allow Shelter to send out each build team with an AED to accompany their first aid kit. CDN $30,000 would allow Shelter to purchase 10 AEDs.”

— Simon Sedgwick, Shelter STM Leader 2026

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