GUATEMALA VILLAGE HEALTH

Mobile medical and health clinic based primary care services provided to a population of 10,000 people in 15 rural Mayan Guatemalan villages in the mountains of El Estor, Izabal, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. Our in-country nursing team visits each village monthly to provide acute care, management of chronic disease, pregnancy and contraceptive care, and administer a supplement program to 200 babies (6 months to 2 years of age) to prevent baby malnutrition / stunting with growth and development monitoring, and screening for cervical cancer. We provide medications and medical supplies to treat our patients, augmenting the Ministry of Health resources. We also bring medical teams twice per year, consisting of 10 to 15 volunteers to provide more advanced clinical care and health screening serving approximately 1400 people per year, providing 16800 hours of donated service including Guatemala volunteers. We provide ongoing health education to villagers, training for lay health workers, and education for nursing staff. Expenses include salaries for Guatemalan health team, medications, medical supplies, nutritional supplements, health worker training, scholarships, & in-country transportation, food & lodging.

Our public health improvement projects include, the healthy homes program which provides water filters, composting toilets, and smokeless stoves, now with locally made bricks designed with the villagers. Villagers collaborate by paying a portion of the cost, gathering supplies for construction, and provide labor. Our Permaculture farming program is training villagers to combat malnutrion through fruit tree forests and kitchen gardens. Lay Health workers provide education and ongoing supervision once home improvements are completed. Health promotors are given an incentive payment for their work to support these programs. Villagers are trained in program implementation and construction.