Mary Micikas JoAn Dwyer Whitney Strong
Programs APRAS WWCSG Culture
Logistics Volunteer

Programs

• San Juan Clinic:

The leading causes of death in the villages we work in are preventable gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases and diabetes. Recognizing the dire need for health services, the San Juan La Laguna community asked our help to redesign an adobe Methodist Church abandoned in 1995. Our project is to convert it to a medical/dental clinic and multi-use community building, and the good news is that we are nearly finished with the construction. Thanks to many generous donations, and the hard work of about 20 volunteer construction teams, we plan to have the construction of the clinic completed by the end of August 2009. o We have already completed the medical part of the clinic, and we opened the clinic on April 13, 2009 with a local nurse and an assistant working in the clinic Monday through Friday in the mornings to see patients and provide follow-up health care in-between medical teams. o We host medical teams throughout the year, and these medical teams provide the primary health and dental care, while our local staff works to provide follow-up treatment and make referrals for patients to other clinics. Our goal in the future is to be able to hire a full time doctor and dentist to work in the clinic; however as of yet we do not have the funding for these positions. We provide very low-cost health care to our patients ($1.33 for a consult and medicine). Our experience and results from our health needs assessment show us that what the people in the villages want and are in need of is good low-cost medical and dental treatment (the daily wage for a field worker is $2.66 per day); however we feel that it is very important for people to participate in their health care and not to receive handouts, thus we charge this minimal cost to our patients.

• Promatoras en Salud is a health promoter training program which we have begun as a new program for our clinic. The health promoter training consists of 3 week long classes held throughout the year in conjunction with Proyecto Salud y Paz. We will have monthly meetings with our trained health promoters to provide further trainings and to coordinate classes that they will teach in the communities. Our group of health promoters will also help set up and coordinate the clinics for medical teams and serve as our Spanish to Tzu’tujil translators.

• WINGS is a non-profit organization based in Antigua, Guatemala offers education for women in family planning and provides cervical cancer detection clinics. This cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death for women of child-bearing age in Guatemala. During the cervical cancer detection clinics, the nurse from WINGS can exam up to 40 women in one day using a new procedure with immediate results and often can perform on-site treatment. The family planning promoters are very careful to take a culturally sensitive approach to explore the controversial subject of family planning in the villages. We are also going to have our nurse trained by WINGS as a contraceptive promoter who will receive a constant stock of different methods to give to women who come to our clinic.

• For more information about WINGS you can visit their website at:______________

Roof-top garden

• On the roof of our two story dental clinic and classroom, we are going to put a community medicinal herb garden. Our hope is to use our knowledge of medicinal herbs and natural medicine combined with the knowledge of the elders in the community about natural medicines to create a sample teaching garden at the clinic. We hope that we can encourage the use of natural medicine as well as good nutrition as preventive medicine in the communities of San Juan and San Pablo. In the future we hope to incorporate the use of our garden into health promoter and community health classes.

• “Beca” (Scholarship) Program: Although the country provides “free” education to children, the associated costs are prohibitive for most poor families. “Becas” are scholarships we provide to primary school children. Strong motivation and enthusiasm of both parents and student are important criteria for selection into the program. We also consider dedication of student time for school attendance and study. Funds cover registration and monthly fees, books, supplies, uniform, and gym clothes, 2 pairs of shoes, and weekly 4-hour tutoring. 2008 was our pilot year for the program with 9 students ranging from kindergarten through 5th grade. We continued the program this year with the 9 students, and we are constantly in communication with the students’ teachers and our teachers who teach the tutoring classes to make sure the students are keeping up in their classes and are getting the reinforcement they need. This year we were able to rent our a classroom for the students, so they now have a place that is their own, where they can hang pictures and decorations on the wall. We also have added an afternoon snack during the tutoring classes, and are working to promote good nutrition and hygiene with the students.

• Adult Literacy Program. Beginning in early 2007 in collaboration with a governmental literacy program, ConAlfa, ODIM acts as the fiscal agent and insurer of efficacy for Nelson Daybreak Rotary Club of British Columbia. We are responsible for helping with the selection of and paying the salaries to 4 teachers who teach literacy classes to groups of women in the villages of San Juan, San Pablo, and Palestina. In addition, an independent volunteer observer for ODIM visits the classes each week, makes suggestions for improving learning, and verifies attendance. Once a month a volunteer also teaches a class on nutrition, health, or hygiene to the women in the groups.

• Children’s Cultural Exchange. The purpose of the Children’s Cultural Exchange is to reduce racism and classism and promote an understanding of a different culture. By actually being in the homes, fields, workplace, and schools of other children, the participants learn that on many levels ladinos and indigeous people share many common traits. This is an 8-day project that brings 10 extremely poor children together from different lifestyles—5 children from the capital city and 5 from the rural village of San Juan La Laguna. They spend equal time in each place living together. Each year since 2006 we have alternated bringing boys and then girls, ages 8-12 to participate. The children have the opportunity to climb trees & cut firewood, pick and haul coffee, visit their national palace, make tortillas and create entrepreneurial crafts together. They experience more diversity of culture and lifestyle in this short week than they might otherwise in their lifetime.