Guatemala Village Health

Mobile medical clinic services provided to a population of 7,500 people in 10 rural Mayan Guatemalan villages in the mountains of El Estor, Izabal. 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. We provide medications and medical supplies for all of our patients. We also bring medical mission teams twice per year, consisting of 10 to 15 volunteers to provide more advanced clinical care serving approximately 1400 people per year, providing 16,800 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 Guatemalan support team, medications, medical supplies, nutritional supplements, health worker training, scholarships, & in-country transportation, food & lodging.

Clinic construction - We began upgrade to a village community center that we constructed in 2020-2021 which had a small clinic space, to meet the Ministry of Health standards for a formal Health Post that will serve all 7 villages in the sector in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. We added a sanitation system, and partitioned the space to create exam rooms, a laboratory, pharmacy, registration, and nurses office.

In our healthy homes project, we provide water filters, composting toilets, and are piloting a smokeless stoves project. Villagers collaborate by paying a portion of the cost, gathering supplies for construction, and provide labor. 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.