Guatemala Health Initiative

Last updated

The Guatemala Health Initiative (GHI) is a private, humanitarian organization that works to improve the health of the impoverished indigenous population in the remote areas of Guatemala's western highlands. The GHI is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania. Faculty, students, and staff address health issues affecting the municipality of Santiago Atitlán. [1] GHI aims to strengthen clinical services and promote community health in resource-poor Guatemalan communities. [2]

Contents

Background

Santiago Atitlán has 44,220 Tz'utujil, Mayan language-speaking inhabitants, and is 98 percent indigenous. The primary language for ninety-four percent of its residents is Tz'utujil; 54 percent also speak Spanish, and 13 percent read some Spanish. [3] Residents of Santiago Atitlán are referred to as Atitecos. Eighty percent are Catholics, but traditional Mayan beliefs have also endured.

According to the World Bank, Guatemala had one of the most unequal income distributions in the world in 2011; 51 percent of the population lived on less than US$2 a day, and 15 percent lived on less than US$1 a day. [4] Over half of Guatemala's population lives in extreme poverty, with the poverty level rising to 91 percent in the rural, indigenous Maya areas of Santiago Atitlán. [5]

Guatemala's social-development indicators, such as maternal and infant mortality, chronic child malnutrition, and illiteracy, are among the worst in the Western Hemisphere. Santiago Atitlán has the country's worst access to health care. [4] This and other indigenous communities in the Guatemalan highlands have very high rates of maternal and infant mortality, with many obstetrical complications and high levels of pre-eclampsia. [4]

Despite criticism of water chlorination, 90 percent of residents get their drinking water from household or public taps; however, many still drink from contaminated sources or use home water-treatment methods. Public-health water interventions are needed to address factors underlying unequal access to clean water for waterborne diseases to be minimized. [6] In Guatemala, 23 percent of households have a growth-stunted child and an overweight mother; poor diet is associated with this disparity. [7]

Many global health programs –governmental, non-governmental (NGO), private, and voluntary organizations –work to support the people of Guatemala. The World Health Organization (WHO) directs international health activities, supplies training and technical assistance, develops standards, disseminates health information, promotes research, collects and analyzes epidemiologic data, and develops systems for monitoring and evaluating health programs in the country. [8] One of the Global Health Initiatives sponsored by the United States government targets women, newborns and children under age five in Guatemala. It concentrates support efforts, aligning with NGOs and engaging the private sector to reduce maternal and infant mortality, increasing access to voluntary family planning services, prevention of HIV and other communicable diseases, and improving health systems and health services. [9] In addition to large organizations, private voluntary organizations contribute twenty percent of the external health aid to distressed areas. [10]

History

The GHI established a partnership with the Hospitalito Atitlán in the summer of 2005, during a community-health assessment conducted by medical- and nursing-student volunteers from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). The Hospitalito Atitlán succeeded Clínica Santiaguito, which had been operating since the 1960s. The Clínica was abandoned after the Guatemalan Army's massacre of thirteen Atitecos in 1990, and the town was left without medical services. [11]

In 2002, the grassroots organization K'aslimaal began to raise funds and make plans to reconstruct the hospital. Hospitalito Atitlán opened on April 1, 2005, providing in-patient, surgical, and 24-hour emergency care to the people of Santiago Atitlán. On October 5, 2005, mudslides triggered by Hurricane Stan buried Hospitalito Atitlán under eight feet of mud. The mudslide destroyed the town and killed hundreds, and the area was declared a mass grave. Two Penn medical students were present during the disaster and participated in the relief efforts. Hospitalito Atitlán re-opened two weeks later in a temporary location. Groundbreaking for a new, permanent building began on September 30, 2006. In November 2010, the first floor of the new hospital opened. [12]

Kent Bream, the GHI's founding faculty director, helped to rebuild the Hospitalito Atitlán. [13] Bream trains students and coordinates interdisciplinary research, education, and service programming involving the Penn schools of Nursing, Medicine, Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Applied Science, and the Wharton School to help improve the health of the Atitlán community. [14] The GHI partners with Hospitalito Atitlán. [12]

Santiago Atitlán, Central America's largest indigenous village, is on the southern shore of Lake Atitlán. The word "atitlán" is a Mayan word meaning "the place where the rainbow gets its colors". [15]

2011 update

Hospitalito Atitlán offers medical care to all, with a focus on women and children. Social workers, local physicians, nursing, and administrative staff work with volunteer medical personnel. For the many patients who speak only Tz'utujil, the hospital's staff translates Tz'tujil into Spanish. [16]

The GHI's mission is to work with Hospitalito Atitlán to strengthen local medical services in a socially-relevant and ethically-acceptable way in the resource-poor Tz'ulujil Maya community of Santiago Atitlán. It collaborates with the hospital to improve the health of Atitecos by increasing clinical activities and community-health promotion with community-health research, personnel, and material support. [5] The GHI provides education through videotapes, lectures, and community health projects, including maternal education emphasizing prenatal care, safe deliveries, and postnatal care. It advises the community on the hazards to pulmonary health associated with open cooking fires in homes and the importance of safe drinking water.

A number of projects between Penn and its Guatemalan partners are being conducted or explored, including scientific and clinical training with bilateral exchanges of students and faculty, and research on violence prevention, food and nutrition, road traffic safety, and chronic disease and trauma treatment. [17]

In 2011, Bream, students, medical school librarians, and hospital IT specialists brought the Penn mobile-technology project to Hospitalito Atitlán. The project, a telemedicine program, uses smartphones and other mobile technologies to improve physicians' access to clinical information. The smartphone technology allows images and information to be relayed to Penn doctors for quick diagnosis and second opinions. [16] Physicians can also use electronic devices to tap into extensive electronic medical databases and e-journals to get information on diseases and treatment options. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mayan languages</span> Language family spoken in Mesoamerica

The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica, both in the south of Mexico and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least six million Maya people, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. In 1996, Guatemala formally recognized 21 Mayan languages by name, and Mexico recognizes eight within its territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rigoberta Menchú</span> Kiche Guatemalan human rights activist (born 1959)

Rigoberta Menchú Tum is a K'iche' Guatemalan human rights activist, feminist, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Menchú has dedicated her life to publicizing the rights of Guatemala's Indigenous peoples during and after the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996), and to promoting Indigenous rights internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maya peoples</span> People of southern Mexico and northern Central America

The Maya are an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical region. Today they inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. "Maya" is a modern collective term for the peoples of the region; however, the term was not historically used by the indigenous populations themselves. There was no common sense of identity or political unity among the distinct populations, societies and ethnic groups because they each had their own particular traditions, cultures and historical identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Atitlán</span> Crater lake in Guatemala

Lake Atitlán is a lake in the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierra Madre mountain range. The lake is located in the Sololá Department of southwestern Guatemala. It is known as the deepest lake in Central America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maximón</span> Mayan deity and folk saint

Maximón, also called San Simón, is a Maya deity and folk saint represented in various forms by the Maya peoples of several towns in the Guatemalan Highlands. Oral tradition of his creation and purpose in these communities is complex, diverse, and born of the ancient Maya traditions centuries ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Juan La Laguna</span> Municipality and town in Sololá, Guatemala

San Juan La Laguna is a municipality on the southwest shore of Lago de Atitlán, Sololá, Guatemala. It consists of the village named San Juan La Laguna and three smaller aldeas in the nearby mountain. The population is approximately 95% Tz'utujil. Agriculture is most important for the economy, with the service sector growing, especially as the number of tourists increase. The lowest elevation is the shore of Lago Atitlán at 1,562 metres (5,125 ft).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tzʼutujil people</span> Indigenous Maya people of Guatemala

The Tzʼutujil are a Native American people, one of the 22 Maya ethnic groups that dwell in Guatemala. Together with the Xinca, Garífunas and the Ladinos, they make up the 25 ethnic groups in this relatively small country. Approximately 100,000 Tzʼutujil live in the area around Lake Atitlán. Their pre-Columbian capital, near Santiago Atitlán, was Chuitinamit. In pre-Columbian times, the Tzʼutujil nation was a part of the ancient Maya civilization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Lucas Tolimán</span> Municipality of Guatemala in Sololá

San Lucas Tolimán is a municipality in the Sololá department of Guatemala. The town of 17,000 people sits on the southeastern shore of Lago de Atitlán. The population is 90–95% Highland Maya. There is a population of about the same size living in the surrounding villages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Pedro La Laguna</span> Municipality in Sololá, Guatemala

San Pedro La Laguna is a Guatemalan town on the southwest shore of Lake Atitlán. For centuries, San Pedro La Laguna has been inhabited by the Tz'utujil people, and in recent years it has also become a tourist destination for its Spanish language schools, nightlife, and proximity to the lake and volcanoes, particularly Volcán San Pedro, at whose base San Pedro La Laguna is located.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santiago Atitlán</span> City in Sololá, Guatemala

Santiago Atitlán is a municipality in the Sololá department of Guatemala.

Panabaj, located on the edge of Lake Atitlán in the western highlands of Guatemala, is a small village within the municipality of Santiago Atitlán, bordering the city of Santiago Atitlán proper, in the department of Sololá. Prior to the disaster of Hurricane Stan in which over 400 persons from Panabaj and nearby Tzanchaj were killed or left missing, the town's population had numbered over 3,000, though a census has not been taken since.

Tzʼutujil is a Mayan language spoken by the Tzʼutujil people in the region to the south of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. Tzʼutujil is closely related to its larger neighbors, Kaqchikel and Kʼicheʼ. The 2002 census found 60,000 people speak Tzʼutujil as their mother tongue. The two Tzʼutujil dialects are Eastern and Western.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Rother</span> 20th-century American Catholic priest

Stanley Francis Rother was an American Roman Catholic priest from Oklahoma who was murdered in Guatemala in 1981. He had worked as a missionary priest there since 1968. He held several parish assignments as a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City from 1963 to 1968 before being assigned to Guatemala.

Martín Prechtel is an American author and educator. From New Mexico, he traveled to Guatemala in 1970. There he moved into a Tz'utujil community near Lake Atitlán. He learned he Mayan language and studied with a shaman named Nicolas Chiviliu Tacaxoy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health in Guatemala</span>

Health in Guatemala is focused on many different systems of prevention and care. Guatemala's Constitution states that every citizen has the universal right to health care. However, this right has been hard to guarantee due to limited government resources and other problems regarding access. The health care system in place today developed out of the Civil War in Guatemala. The Civil War prevented social reforms from occurring, especially in the sector of health care.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centro Educativo Pavarotti</span> Secondary school for children aged 12 to 16 in San Lucas Tóliman, Guatemala

Centro Educativo Pavarotti is a junior high school for children aged 12–16 located near Lake Atitlán in San Lucas Tolimán, Sololá Departement, Guatemala. The center is an initiative of the Rigoberta Menchú Foundation, which is an institution accredited for its contributions to the defense of human rights especially of indigenous peoples which impels educational programs, citizen participation, community development and combating impunity. The Utzilal Tijonikel program, which translated from Kaqchikel into English means “teaching to do the good thing”, offers also education complemented by a basic work orientation. The center serves approximately 150 Guatemalan children with 10 professors educating them. The majority of children attending this school live in poor circumstances, so that they receive financial support in order to attend this school. Without these benefits they would probably work on fields, like many of their parents do.

Mark V. Pauly is an American economist whose work focuses on healthcare management and business economics. He is currently the Bendheim Professor in the Department of Health Care Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Pauly is a former commissioner on the Physician Payment Review Commission, and has been a consultant to the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the American Enterprise Institute, and served on the Medicare Technical Advisory Panel. He is also the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Springer journal International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics, and was formerly the Robert D. Eilers Professor from 1984 to 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula Nicho Cumez</span> Mayan-Guatemalan artist

Paula Nicho Cumez is a Mayan-Guatemalan artist. Cumez is inspired by Mayan tradition and culture and focuses on expressing the context of native women’s experience in her artwork; additionally, Cumez was inspired by the Popol Vuh. Cumez is known for creating an artist community of women within the Tz’uthil Mayan artists, named "Kaqchikel Surrealist Painters.” Additionally, a short film was made about Paula Nicho Cumez’s background called Del Azul al Cielo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Concepción Ramírez</span> Guatemalan indigenous woman (1942–2021)

María de la Concepción Ramírez Mendoza was a peace activist from Guatemala, whose portrait appears on the Guatemalan 25 centavo coin, known as the choca.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">María Jacinta Xón Riquiac</span> Maya Kʼicheʼ anthropologist

María Jacinta X. Riquiac is a Maya Kʼicheʼ anthropologist and indigenous rights activist from Guatemala.

References

  1. ↑ "Guatemala - Improving Rural Health Care | Penn : Making History". Makinghistory.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  2. ↑ "Penn Med Guatemala Health Initiative". Med.upenn.edu. 2007-02-09. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  3. ↑ Archived 2012-04-06 at the Wayback Machine
  4. 1 2 3 "Guatemala". State.gov. 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  5. 1 2 "Attitudes of the Public". www.med.upenn.edu. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  6. ↑ Nagata, Jason M.; Valeggia, Claudia R.; Smith, Nathaniel W.; Barg, Frances K.; Guidera, Mamie; Bream, Kent D. W. (January 2011). "Criticisms of chlorination: social determinants of drinking water beliefs and practices among the Tz'utujil Maya". Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública. 29 (1): 09–16. hdl:10665.2/9595. PMID   21390414.
  7. ↑ Nagata, Jason M.; Barg, Frances K.; Valeggia, Claudia R.; Bream, Kent D. W. (July 2011). "Coca-Colonization and Hybridization of Diets among the Tz'utujil Maya". Ecology of Food and Nutrition. 50 (4): 297–318. Bibcode:2011EcoFN..50..297N. doi:10.1080/03670244.2011.568911. PMID   21888598. S2CID   29683298.
  8. ↑ "biregional CH-10 till end (Pages 397-539).pdf" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-27. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  9. ↑ "Global Health Initiative: Guatemala Strategy". Ghi.gov. 2011-04-11. Retrieved 2011-12-17.[ dead link ]
  10. ↑ "International Medical Volunteers Association". Imva.org. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  11. ↑ "Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala - a Human Rights Victory". Gslis.utexas.edu. Archived from the original on 2011-11-15. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  12. 1 2 "Hospitalito Atitlán". Hospitalito Atitlán. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  13. ↑ "Bream bio". Publichealth.med.upenn.edu. Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  14. ↑ "Penn: Office of the University Provost | Guatemala". Upenn.edu. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  15. ↑ "Lake Atitlán Guatemala". Atitlan.net. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  16. 1 2 "Hospitalito Atitlán Blog » Blog Archive » Guatemalan Health Initiative - 2011". Blog.hospitalitoatitlan.org. 2011-08-08. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  17. ↑ "Penn: Office of the University Provost | Guatemala". Upenn.edu. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  18. ↑ "The Daily Pennsylvanian :: Penn assists Guatemalan 'Hospitalito'". Thedp.com. 2011-04-01. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.