Global Health Missions is a non-profit organization founded by two physician assistants and an accountant who met in Guatemala while doing volunteer work in 2009. GHM is founded on the belief that the underserved in developing countries should also have access to quality healthcare.
GHM’s first medical mission involved 10 practitioners, 9 translators, and two local organizations, GIFT and Mayan Families. Each day of the mission, two clinics were run. Local social organization Mayan Families chose the locations of clinics each day based on the direst need; our typical patient hasn’t seen a practitioner in months. Most of our patients are women and children; mothers struggle daily to take care of their children in a country where nearly 23 per cent of children over three months and under five years suffer from general malnutrition, while almost one-half suffer from chronic malnutrition.
Their days were long and challenging, but in the end over 1200 Guatemalans who live in extreme poverty received healthcare; each patient had an intake sheet, was interviewed, examined, and given either medications, a referral for a test, or educated on public health issues, all by an American health practitioner. Those patients we saw that had overwhelming social issues compounding their state of health were referred to Mayan Families for follow-up.
GHM is dedicated to the idea of public health education and empowering those we see with knowledge. Last year we worked with the firemen in Panajachel who are the first-responders to medical emergencies and traumas. Part of our team consisted of two Emergency Medicine PA’s who spent two days with the firemen teaching up-to-date skills in trauma. One of their goals is to continue to provide support to this incredible group of individuals via donation of supplies and continued education in life-saving techniques.
They feel that their first trip was such a success: beyond the numbers of patients, they each have their own unique stories of patients to carry home. They envision this trip as the first of many successes.
To find out more about this group, please see their website, or Facebook page.
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