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 [...]
Tag Archives: Health Education
Profile: Heart to Heart
Posted by Laura on June 15, 2010
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Heart to Heart International has been creating a healthier world since 1992. Whether they are providing medical education, delivering medical aid to a hospital and clinic, responding to people in crisis or addressing community-health concerns around the world, Heart to Heart has one big goal: Making the world a healthier place to live and work. [...]
Profile: Clinica Comunitaria Daniel Comboni
Posted by Laura on June 1, 2010
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The Clinica Comunitaria Daniel Comboni (Daniel Comboni Community Clinic) located in Mixco, Guatemala, provides health, dental, and educational services. The clinic reaches out to the large population of indigenous people living in poverty and extreme poverty in Mixco by offering health and dental services for a nominal fee. Education and nutrition programs provide the people [...]
Profile: Wuqu’ Kawoq
Posted by Laura on May 26, 2010
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Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere. Decades of violence, corruption, and racism have stranded much of the population in poverty with uncertain prospects for the future. Although nearly 75% of the population in Guatemala is Mayan, and speaks one of over 20 different indigenous languages, there are no health care [...]
Profile: Primeros Pasos
Posted by Laura on May 20, 2010
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Primeros Pasos is a clinic in rural Guatemala that has a comprehensive outlook on health care. With the collaboration of health professionals, health educators, volunteers, and community leaders, Primeros Pasos offers quality and affordable health care and health education to the rural, underserved communities of the Palajunoj Valley of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Primeros Pasos works in [...]
Upcoming Trips: Hendersonville Rotary / Shalom Foundation
Posted by Laura on April 26, 2010
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Patient referrals are being accepted for the June 12-20 Guatemala City trip of The Hendersonville Rotary Club members led by Dr. Bill Taylor and Rip Lebkuecher with The Shalom Foundation. Dentists, hygienists, eye care professionals, physicians and support team members treated more than 1400 patients while conducting their wellness clinic at Shalom School last year. [...]
Profile: Maya Traditions
Posted by Laura on April 22, 2010
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In 1988, Maya Traditions founder Jane Mintz, an experienced social worker (MSW) and weaver, began working with indigenous women artisans living in poverty in Guatemala. She observed that their skill of backstrap weaving was a chance for them to earn a stable income for their families while working from home doing what they were already [...]
Blog Profile: She doesn’t speak Spanish
Posted by Kari on April 19, 2010
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“I’m moving to Guatemala, but I don’t speak Spanish… at all” The no habla Espanol “she” is Kerry Smith, a blogger from North Carolina who works in a school for the nonprofit Lemonade International. Kerry didn’t go to Guatemala to become a teacher; she want to be a student, in a Spanish language school this [...]
Profile: Faith in Practice
Posted by Laura on April 15, 2010
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The mission of Faith In Practice (FIP) is to improve the physical, spiritual, and economic conditions of the poor in Guatemala through short-term surgical, medical and dental mission trips and health-related educational programs. Their mission is based on an ecumenical understanding that as people of God they are called to demonstrate the love and compassion [...]
Profile: Clinica Maxeña
Posted by Laura on April 12, 2010
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Clinica Maxeña, in Santo Tomás, provides medical, dental and optical assistance and limited types of surgery. The clinic operation is made up of various projects that receive support from several donor agencies, including the Diocese of Helena, MT. These projects work together to provide excellent care to those who come to Clinica Maxeña and also [...]
New Project: The Hope Alliance Midwife Training Program
Posted by Laura on April 5, 2010
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Guatemala suffers from higher infant and maternal mortality rates than any other country in Latin America and the Caribbean except Haiti. The issue of maternal mortality is one that continues to go unnoticed, despite the devastating toll being taken on women around the world. Every minute, a woman dies from complications related to pregnancy and [...]
Announcement: Shalom Foundation Upcoming Trips
Posted by Laura on April 5, 2010
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The following trips are being sponsored by and/or are associated with The Shalom Foundation. To find out more information, visit their website. All groups will work in Guatemala City. Clean Water Trip – Living Waters for the World Franklin Breakfast Rotary & Kingsport First Presbyterian Church April 28 – May 3, 2010 Team [...]
Book Review: Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the new war on the poor
Posted by Kari on April 4, 2010
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Dr. Paul Farmer has written an ambitious book in the face of the world’s most stubbornly unsolvable issue: poverty. I first picked up the book after reading the best-selling biography “Mountains Beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder, in which Farmer’s travels and experiences with global health are recorded. After getting to know his human side, I [...]
Profile: Vanderbilt University Center for Latin American Studies
Posted by Laura on April 3, 2010
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In 2006, The Vanderbilt Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) was designated a National Resource Center by the U.S. Department of Education. While maintaining one of the strongest concentrations of Brazilianists of any university in the United States, the Center’s renowned faculty also has particular strengths in Mesoamerican anthropology and archaeology, the study of democracy [...]
Profile: Hope Alliance
Posted by Laura on April 1, 2010
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Transforming Critical Need into Sustainable Change The mission of The Hope Alliance is to empower impoverished people with the skills and tools they need to create positive change in the lives of their families and in their villages. The Hope Alliance also educates and exposes volunteers to the situation of those in developing countries. The [...]
Profile: Los Medicos Voladores (Flying Doctors)
Posted by Laura on March 31, 2010
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Los Médicos Voladores (LMV) — in Spanish, the flying doctors — is a volunteer-based nonprofit organization that aims to improve the health and well-being of geographically diverse peoples through education and the provision of no-cost, high-quality medical, dental, and optometric clinics. LMV serves Mexico, Central and South America, and migrant labor populations of the southwestern United [...]
Profile: Project Concern International/Casa Materna
Posted by Laura on March 25, 2010
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Project Concern International (PCI) is a non-profit health and humanitarian aid organization dedicated to preventing disease, improving community health, and promoting sustainable development. PCI began working in Guatemala in 1974, bringing basic health care to Mayan communities around Lake Atitlan. Throughout the 1980s, during the civil war that ravaged Guatemala, PCI trained an extensive network [...]
Profile: Roots & Wings International
Posted by Laura on March 23, 2010
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Roots and Wings International promotes elementary through university education in rural Guatemala. They work with indigenous youth whose families earn $2 per day growing coffee. Their work is rooted in recognizing the importance of culturally responsive education that empowers students to connect their cultural identity with sustainable social and economic development. Student Scholarship: Roots & Wings International [...]
Profile: Refuge International
Posted by Laura on March 23, 2010
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Refuge International (RI) is a compassionate 501(c)3 volunteer organization dedicated to improving the lives of families and individuals through the collaborative development of sustainable programs in areas where healthcare, adequate nutrition, clean water and education are lacking or non-existent. Refuge International also provides opportunities for mentoring of students who wish to become involved in humanitarian efforts. [...]
Profile: Ak’Tenamit
Posted by Laura on March 23, 2010
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Ak’ Tenamit means “New Village” in the Q’eqchi Mayan language, because their organization is transforming life in the Q’eqchi villages of eastern Guatemala. Those villages are located around the Río Dulce, far from the nearest road – most are reached by a boat trips and hikes through the rain forest – and they lack electricity, [...]
Profile: Proyecto Payaso
Posted by Laura on March 14, 2010
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The Asociación Payasos Atz’anem K’oj (“The Clowns”) gathers, trains and resources groups of youth peer educators and people living with HIV in sexual and reproductive health. These groups carry out the Clowns’ communication projects in sexual health, HIV and Aids and STIs to vulnerable populations (in rural indigenous areas, prisons, borders and ports, and others) [...]
Profile: Thirteen Threads (Oxlajuj B’atz)
Posted by Laura on March 9, 2010
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Thirteen Threads (Oxlajuj B’atz’) provides training and educational opportunities to Maya women’s groups throughout rural areas of Guatemala. More than 400 women in 22 groups currently participate in the project. They organize workshops, classes, and community follow-ups, as well as host two interns per year through their Young Mayan Women Internship Program What does the [...]
Profile: Seeds of Help
Posted by Laura on March 1, 2010
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Seeds of Help Foundation is a private not-for-profit organization that provides grassroots-level assistance to improve the lives of people in developing nations through educational programs and construction projects. Currently, Seeds of Help Foundation serves 30 remote communities in a department (region) known as Huehuetenango, located in the western highlands of Guatemala where families survive by subsistence [...]
Profile: Faith In Action Ministries
Posted by Laura on February 26, 2010
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Faith In Action (FIA) is a 501(c)(3) Christian organization designed to target isolated, remote people who have become lost and stagnant within their developing country. They primarily focus on mountainous highlands and the swampy waterways of Rio Dulce in Guatemala, Central America. Faith in Action takes the Good News into communities that have no church [...]
Profile: Guatemala Healing Hands Foundaiton
Posted by Laura on February 25, 2010
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The Guatemala Healing Hands Foundation (GHHF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality and availability of health care in Guatemala through education, surgery, and therapy. Specializing in the treatment of congenital and hand injuries, they aim to reach Guatemalan children and adults through medical missions led by a team of specialized and skilled [...]