El Peten « Link for Health

Profile: Engineers Without Borders

Dubbed the “Blueprint Brigade,” by Time Magazine, Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA) grew from little more than a handful of members in 2002 to over 12,000 today.

EWB-USA has over 350 projects in over 45 developing countries around the world including water, renewable energy, sanitation and more. These projects are completed in partnership with local communities and NGOs. EWB-USA helps create a more stable and prosperous world by addressing people’s basic human needs by providing necessities such as clean water, power, sanitation and education. EWB-USA’s strength comes from its over 250 dedicated chapters, including university chapters on 180 campuses in the United States. Because of its strong university presence, EWB-USA is the catalyst for a new movement to educate the next generation of socially conscious engineers deeply aware of the needs of the rest of the world.

EWB-USA partners with developing communities in over 45 countries across the world. Their membership consists of professionals and students from a variety of professions including engineering, health, anthropology and business. EWB-USA members make up over 250 chapters located throughout the USA. Through its projects, EWB-USA provides innovative professional educational opportunities that provide a global perspective. Each EWB-USA chapter makes at least a five-year commitment to a partnering community. With the community’s input, the chapter designs and implements low-cost, small-scale, replicable and sustainable engineering solutions to problems identified by the community. This includes water, sanitation, and renewable energy. EWB-USA members train local community members and local NGO’s to successfully monitor and maintain the projects.

To view a representative list of EWB projects in Guatemala, please click here. To learn how to submit a project application, click here for English, or here for Spanish.

To learn more about EWB, please visit their website.

Profile: Faith in Practice

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 that is an outward sign of God’s presence among us. Faith In Practice’s life-changing medical mission is to minister to the poor, while providing a spiritually enriching experience for their volunteers.

Currently, their medical teams travel to the most remote and poorest parts of Guatemala, setting up makeshift clinics in rural villages. Working side by side Guatemalan volunteers, their medical teams provide general care and make referrals to Obras Sociales del Santo Hermano Pedro (The Obras), now a hospital that houses four state-of-the art operating rooms thanks to Faith In Practice supporters, and to four additional smaller hospitals throughout Guatemala. Patients now have a safe and pleasant place to stay at their guesthouse, the Casa de Fe, while awaiting and recovering from surgery in Antigua. Their public health initiative has seen the development of the VIA/Cryo Program designed to train Guatemalans to identify and treat pre-cancerous cervical cells. They are currently developing a Preventative and Restorative Dental Program. Through these programs, their more than 800 dedicated volunteers served more than 17,000 patients in 2008.

FIP Mission Teams (click here to see 2010 calendar of trips):

Surgical Teams: Faith In Practice medical and dental teams travel to Antigua, Guatemala which is the base for all the teams. All teams volunteer their services for a week, usually traveling from the US on a Saturday and returning on the following Saturday. Teams are divided into a group of health providers who work at the hospital in Antigua and a group which travels to sites and villages in the countryside to provide family practice medicine and dentistry.

Medical and dental professionals working at the Hermano Pedro Hospital and Orphanage for the poor bring all the supplies they expect to use for performing surgery and post operative care. On Sunday, all surgery candidates are seen and reviewed; and a surgical schedule is prepared. The remainder of the week is spent in surgery at the hospital.

Village Teams: Family practice teams bring trunks of medicines and supplies as well and in the course of treating acute illnesses in the villages often encounter people who need surgical care. These patients are referred to the surgical teams working at the hospital. Often the teams are met with busloads of people hoping to receive medical help.

Dental Teams: Dental professionals accompany both the surgical teams and the family practice teams. There is a well-equipped dental clinic at the Hermano Pedro Hospital where general dentistry and extractions are performed and oral hygiene instructions given. Dental professionals who accompany the family practice teams to rural sites concentrate their efforts on pain relief (extractions) and oral hygiene instruction.

Professional Relationships: The professional relationships that develop between U.S. medical and dental personnel and Guatemalan professionals is an added positive impact of the work Faith In Practice is doing. Every year, Faith In Practice endeavors to present post-graduate type learning experiences to the Guatemalan medical community in Antigua and in Guatemala City. Topics have included Ear Infections, Cancer Pain Control, Ovarian Cancer, Knee Surgery, and Hip Replacement Surgery. Guatemalan surgeons are also invited to the OR in Antigua to learn the latest surgical techniques. Faith In Practice believes developing mutual learning and understanding makes sustainable change possible.

Cooperative Efforts: Faith In Practice makes concerted efforts to keep in touch with sister organizations who are working to improve the life and health of the poor in Central America. Much of the needed change that goes beyond any one organization’s scope can come about by combining resources, time, knowledge and energy.

To learn more about Faith in Practice, please visit their website, Facebook page, Twitter page, or blog.

Profile: Dentistry For All

Dentistry For All is a non-profit, 100% volunteer-run and supported organization whose members are dedicated to providing dental education, preventative, surgical and restorative care to the poor in numerous developing communities around the world. All dental volunteers cover the cost of their own travel, while fundraising assists in purchase of necessary equipment and supplies, volunteer sponsorships and other expenses related to the trip.

Over the years, DFA has formed relationships and partnerships with regional development organizations, local NGOs, dental organizations, university programs and countless dental equipment and supply companies, in order to continue to maintain and provide the highest quality of care to those whom they provide dental treatment to.

Dentistry For All recruits and requires volunteers from all walks of life – their efforts are focused on providing the much needed dental care in the poor regions of Guatemala and Nicaragua. However, it takes more than just dentists to form a successful team. A successful mission involves efforts made on many levels – and crosses countless skill sets. Several areas, behind the scenes and along the trip itself, require volunteers to put all the pieces together.

Over the past 15 years, Dentistry For All has seen over 12,000 patients. On February 18th they will be leaving for Guatemala for five weeks and working in four different communities: Comitancillo (San Marcos), Pastores (Sacatepéquez), areas around Guatemala City, and El Remate (El Peten). The Guatemala trip will involve groups averaging 16 people per week – comprised of dentists, assistants, sterilizers and other support volunteers.

To learn more about Dentistry For All, please visit their website (still under development).

Profile: Concern America

Concern America is an international development and refugee aid organization that provides long-term, community-based development and support to economically impoverished communities throughout the world. What distinguishes the work of Concern America is its belief that the transformation of impoverished communities comes from engaging local members in the solutions to their problems. Concern America does this by training community members in health, education, construction, and income-generation, so that the villagers themselves become the health care providers, educators, well-diggers, cooperative members, etc.

In Guatemala, Concern America operates several programs in and around Las Cruces, Naranjo, Melchor, La Libertad and San Andreas, in El Petén.

Community Health Education: Health/public health promoter training is one of the largest components of Concern America’s programs abroad, and it is a good illustration of its philosophy of development. Many of the communities in the developing world have no trained health workers whatsoever, and the nearest health facility is often hours away. The simplest solution might appear to be to send a doctor, nurse or public health specialist to serve the community; but clearly this is not a long-term solution leading to self-sufficiency. Instead, Concern America concentrates on sending health/public health professionals to train local people, often selected by their community, to become primary health care workers, known as health/public health promoters because their role is to educate people to prevent as well as to treat illness; the training also includes midwives who focus on women’s health needs.

“When I think about it, our goal is very ambitious: we are starting with a bunch of adults, many of whom have none to three years of school, and we are teaching them anatomy, physiology, pathology, symptomatology, and treatment with the resources available to us. This is something that would freak out the average first year medical student.” ~ Cliff O’Callahan, M.D.Concern America Advisor and Former C/A Field Volunteer: 1994-present

Public Health: Improving general living conditions on a low budget with locally available materials is not only possible but necessary. Appropriate technology reduces the amount of hard work and long hours of manual labor needed for life-sustaining tasks. For example, potable water can be pumped to populated areas using low cost solar power; fuel-efficient stoves are promoted, saving precious forestlands; purified water is provided, using simple methods such as sand filtration; compost latrines, safe and useful sanitation units, are successfully introduced into entire communities. As well, Concern America has built community-based radio stations together with communities as they organize to protect the environment in the face of destructive and powerful economic interests such as mining, logging, oil, and industrial farms.

Economic Development: Unemployment and underemployment remain oppressively high in countries where Concern America operates. Community members are organized into cooperatives to manufacture products or provide services (brick-making, roofing tile production, herbal soap production, making of handcrafts, sewing cooperatives, food store cooperatives) which are marketable and income-producing. These cooperatives return their profits to projects which are set up to benefit the community at large, eventually making it possible for the projects to become self-sustaining. Decent-paying and meaningful jobs can become a reality in the most remote of villages, while making lives healthier, less burdensome, more fulfilling, and safer.

To find out more about Concern America, please visit their website.

Profile: Volunteer Petèn

Volunteer Petèn is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in San Andrès, Petèn (with a US office in Mohnton, Pennsylvania) whose mission is to aid development in Guatemala by training international volunteers to participate in, design, and implement sustainable projects. Their main projects focus on environmental education, general education, reforestation, forest management, medicinal plants, and working with the public library and public schools, but they are open and able to aid volunteers to develop any project that suits their abilities and goals.

In 2008, Volunteer Petèn projects were building the high school and preschool for the town. 2009 projects include building a basketball court for the town. For 2010, they will continue with the Natural Resource Management School and begin to form projects around the school and its students.

For more information about this group, please see their website.

Link for Health

Profile: Engineers Without Borders

Profile: Faith in Practice

Profile: Dentistry For All

Profile: Concern America

Profile: Volunteer Petèn

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