Paquip Engineering Updates

8/29/10, 4:53 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Flood mitigation channel designed by volunteer engineers Paul and Kristine Hamilton is nearing completion. WK facilitated this project and FONAPAZ provided the machinery to dig out the channel.

A Village Recovers From Agatha

8/29/10, 1:24 pm, posted by Anne Kraemer Díaz

Tropical Storm Agatha destroyed this highland community’s water distribution system, several classrooms, homes, roads, part of the market and more. A large river went off course bringing mudslides, rocks and ruin to the community. It is located an hour from the nearest big city and is difficult to access, yet the highly organized community and many committees quickly took action to put their community back on track. We were contacted a few days after Agatha hit to support their water committee in the rebuilding of their system. We were lucky to have the support of engineers Paul and Kristine Hamilton of Houston, Texas, who dropped everything and came to Guatemala for a week. Through our call for help in the Engineers Without Borders-USA newsletter, Paul and Kristine quickly offered their services.

After 6 days in the field, Paul and Kristen set up a functioning system for the short and medium term as well as created plans for a long term solution. We are currently working with government water organizations in order to fubd for the long term solution. Yet Paul and Kristine also created plans on how to properly reroute the river to put it back on course. They also made plans for how deep and wide to make the river-canal section running through the center of town, in order to protect the community and prevent flood events like this from happening again.

My visit to the community in late July demonstrated the wonderful work of the engineers and the community. The community had only wonderful words to say about the engineers and that the engineers plans and measurements to widen the canal –had already saved the village from another storm that ravaged the area in July. They believed that without the help of Paul and Kristen, the community would be digging out from more mudslides. Although the community is still waiting on heavy bulldozers and machinery from the government to make the canal area wider, the work the community has completed has already paid off. The community was extremely thankful for the services the engineers provided.

Over the past few months, we have also provided medical visits by Peter and other doctors as well as visits from teams of psychologists from Universidad del Valle to help the community recover physically and mentally.

The pictures show areas heavily impacted by the mudslides, the intermediate water system, and the river and canal area for the time being- until they can access the heavy machinery.

A Thank-You to our Summer Volunteers

8/29/10, 1:21 pm, posted by Anne Kraemer Díaz

This summer we had many wonderful volunteer interns and returning staff in Guatemala. We would like to thank all of them for their wonderful help! Wuqu’ Kawoq is founded in volunteerism and we are lucky to have so many wonderful, talented people dedicating their time to communities in Guatemala.

Thank you to Sarah Messmer (Medical Student, Harvard) and Nicole Henretty (Masters in Nutrition, Tufts University) who worked tirelessly on our Child Nutrition project in the Bocacosta and helping to boost our newer Child Nutrition Project in the highlands. Their innovative ideas in child health and implementation enable our projects to excel! We really appreciate how hard they work to make culturally significant information on child health and nutrition for the mothers in the communities. They were also supported by Claire Melvin (University of Illinois, 2010) and her wonderful way with children and many anemia tests. Claire is one of our 2010-2011 year long interns and she will be living in the highlands throughout this next year. She spent the summer working on her language skills and learning highland Guatemala.

A great big Matyox to Anita Chary (MD/PhD student, Washington University in St. Louis) who helped Emily Tummons (Board Chair) lead our Kablajuj Ey field school, train our summer interns and do wonderful ethnographic research and interviews on the diabetic experience in 5 communities where we work. This formative research is helping us to guide the expansion of our diabetes program. She also had great help and support from Miranda Greiner (University of Kansas, 2010). Miranda spent the summer focusing on Kaqchikel and working on diabetes. Miranda will be living in the highlands this entire year as one of our 2010-2011 year-long interns.

We would also like to thank two new volunteers, Yohan Song (Medical Student, Stanford University) and Clarice Amorim (MA student in Anthropology, University of Kansas) who spent 6 weeks working specifically on projects and improvements in the Bocacosta. Yohan and Clarice learned a lot this summer and worked endlessly to collect surveys and information on the water project and local medical resources in the bocacosta region. They visited a plethora of pharmacies, centros de salud, private and public clinics and more. Their work enables us to understand the medical resources available to our patients and how we can work to better serve them by understanding the local circumstances. We hope Clarice and Yohan will be able to volunteer with us again in the future.

Please see some of our previous blog posts from some of our volunteers and staff while they were in the field!

6 Month Bocacosta Water Project Update

8/29/10, 1:20 pm, posted by Anne Kraemer Díaz

The Clean Water Project in the bocacosta community that is working in tandem with the Child Nutrition project is going very well. We are happy to report that almost every home has a filter in place! The filters are point-of-use- Bio Sand Filters. In Collaboration with Engineers without Borders-University of Illinois, Rotary Club of Sylvan Lake Canada and Rotary Club of Mazatenango, Guatemala we have made this project a reality. The Bio-Sand filters are being constructed by community members and delivered to each house. Many houses have had their filters for several months. Only one neighborhood still needs filters installed.

This summer we wanted to evaluate the project at midstream to see how the filters were working and to check on project implementation, use of the filters, and understanding of the maintenance of the filters. We were lucky to have volunteers on hand to help us out through the process. Clarice Amorim and Yohan Song worked closely with Mayra and Cata to do surveys about the water project in every household. We had a great initial response. Almost every family who has a filter is actively using the filter. Also, many families believed their children were healthier due to drinking clean water for several months. Over the next few months we will analyze the results of all of the surveys and feedback from the community. In December or January we will be holding a one year anniversary celebration of the beginning of the implementation of the Water Project. This will be a one day celebration focused on education about clean water and the cleaning, maintenance and use of the filters as well as fun and food. We will celebrate along with the engineer team from EWB-University of Illinois that will be coming to Guatemala to review the project and fitlers. We are also forging new relationships with the Universidad del Valle en Guatemala City and their engineering department which should bring new ideas and project.

We are also happy to report, that due to this water project technology, we were able to make a big impact in communities around Lake Atitlan. Immediately following tropical storm Agatha we sent our team of filter builders from the bocacosta to Panajachel to collaborate with the NGO, Mayan Families. Our team brought our filter molds, tools and information and spent several weeks teaching members of the communities and Mayan Families how to build the filters. As of today Wuqu’ Kawoq has built 100 filters around the lake to help bring clean water to many families. Mayra and Cata also traveled to Panajachel to provide a day of training on how to use, maintain, and clean the filters as well as basic clean water information. Overall, this collaboration has been wonderful and we have really enjoyed working with Mayan Families.

Update from the Bocacosta

8/29/10, 1:11 pm, posted by Anne Kraemer Díaz

There have been a lot of wonderful things happening in the Bocacosta over the last year. We are happy to report that the children in the community are doing better! We arrived to work in this village only a few short years ago, and already we are seeing great improvements in the nutrition of the children and the families. Thanks to Anita Chary and Sarah Messmer who worked so hard to get the Child Nutrition program running and their dedicated perseverance to transfer the project into the hands of our wonderful social workers and the community. Sarah and Anita left one year ago and the project is successfully running under our social workers, Mayra and Cata with great community support. Anita and Sarah continue to work hard from St. Louis and Boston to make sure the social workers and community members have all the support they need. Currently, our social workers visit the families each week to check on newborns, at risk children, talk to mothers with infants about solid food introduction, deliver the nutritional supplement, weigh and measure the children and more.

In late July, we had a town hall meeting with all of the families in the community to discuss the Child Nutrition project and listen to suggestions and feedback from the families. We explained some of the changes in our project, such as providing sprinkles. Sprinkles- provide iron and vitamins to children in the form of a powder that is easily added to food or drink. It is tasteless and a child needs one packet a day for two months. Sprinkles help to get rid of anemia as well as prevent it. Since many of the children in the community did not like iron drops we were using, we switched to sprinkles and found that many of the children and mothers really liked using sprinkles instead. The community meetings provide a great forum for discussion about our projects and how we can always improve.

We also trained Mayra and Cata on our new scale for weighing toddlers and reviewed anemia testing. Mayra and Cata will be able to do anemia testing for all of the children in 6 months to check the effectiveness of the Sprinkles. The evening training sessions with Mayra and Cata provided time for us to discuss problems, gossip, and positive changes in the community. Listening to Mayra and Cata, both who live in nearby, similar communities to where we have the Child Nutrition project, provides us with great insight on how to adjust our programs and initiatives to better serve the community. Following the community meeting we discussed the ideas and feedback in order to assess and evaluate our programs. Overall, we are excited about the growth and success of the program.

Clean water with PUR!

8/6/10, 11:00 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

WK has recently imported an exciting product, PUR, made by Proctor and Gamble, which is a water disinfectant which we are using in areas affected by Agatha that still do not have water. To demonstrate the capacity of this product, today Florencio and I took mud from a corn field in Tecpan and turned it into clean water.

See you soon!

8/6/10, 9:01 pm, posted by Nicole Henretty

Last week was our last week in Paya', and we got to see the culmination of our work there this summer. We observed the comitee of mothers as they spent one day in each of Paya's three sectors, weighing and measuring the children, testing for anemia, giving out Chispitas, and teaching their first capacitación on anemia.

Elva and Roselia measuring a child

Cristalina weighing a baby with the new hanging scale

Gabina observing Elvia perform an anemia test

One of the mothers with Chispitas

Because we were so inspired but these women and the work they are doing, we would like to tell you a little about each and give a face to the committee.

From left to right: Elva, Cristalina, Roselia, Elvia, & Gabina

Elva is the sweetheart of the group; she is very welcoming and always makes sure everyone is all right. She can be a little shy, but when it is her turn to do something, she takes charge!

Cristalina is one of the youngest and has yet to be married or have children of her own but she is a great addition to the group and all of the kids love her. She is very motivated and loves to learn about anything. She organizes the data that the women collect during weigh-ins and is a wiz at the computer!

Roselia is the boss. She organizes the comité and brings all the women together. Everyone looks up to her and while she can be tough when she needs to be, she has a heart of gold. Sometimes during lessons she was very quiet, seeming inattentive, but she knew the answer to every question we had!

Elvia is the jokester of the group; she always makes everyone around her laugh. She is also very hands-on and had no problem taking up the job as anemia-tester!

Gabina is a midwife by training, and although she is getting up there in years, she still has great amounts of energy! The kids love her and often she watches over them during classes and clinics.

After the last capacitación, they cooked everyone a big meal to say thank you and goodbye… but it wasn’t a goodbye for us, just see you (very) soon!

The comitee are well prepared to teach classes once a month for the next 5 or 6 months as well as counsel mothers who have basic questions about nutrition and health. To wrap up the summer from our end, we are editing and improving all of the materials used in these classes and hope to eventually turn them into a published resource to use in all of the communities where we work.

WK featured in KU Alumni Magazine article

7/30/10, 11:24 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

A very interesting article in the most recent edition of the Kansas University alumni magazine features Wuqu' Kawoq staff members. They have kindly given us permission to repost the article to our website. You can download it here.

Learning Kaqchikel

7/23/10, 11:20 am, posted by Miranda Greiner

The language field school Kab’lajuj Ey created a unique opportunity on returning to Guatemala. An exceptional group of teachers and students gathered for the classes. Language immersion, the availability of brilliant teachers, and intensive grammar lessons created the daily structure of the course. The grammar lessons (Kemchi’) were taught by the knowledgeable Filiberto Majzul—the author of the OKMA Kaqchikel dictionary,“Rusoltzij ri Kaqchikel”. As one of the few Spanish to Kaqchikel dictionaries, this text has become a new companion while here. More importantly, many of the teachers have become companions. Kab’lajuj Ey provided an experience unlike so many by creating friendships within the Kaqchikel community and with other students maintaining similar interests.

Coinciding with our classes, WK members dedicated all efforts to disaster relief. Observing these efforts emphasized my understanding to the necessity of providing health care and education in the primary language, Kaqchikel. Amidst the closing of the course, Peter saw patients at the clinic in Santiago Sacatepéquez. Finalizing the afternoon, he discussed the importance of providing health care in Kaqchikel emphasizing the pertinence to the immersion courses. Language immersion allowed the exposure of many dialectical variations including Chiq’a’l, Iximche’, Katal Po, and Patzún.

Following Kab’lajuj Ey, I have another wonderful opportunity within the language field school through the University of Tulane, Oxlajuj Aj. Two of the same teachers from KE are part of a grand group of teachers that work with the students each day. Each day is quite amazing, as the day is packed full of conversing and learning Kaqchikel.

A previous weekend, I was able to work with Anita and Magda in the Comalapa ACOTCHI clinic. Magda and Anita carried out surveys with many of the diabetic patients. That day included hours of listening to Kaqchikel and observing Magda and Anita’s excellent efforts. Many of the WK members are working towards coordinating educational classes concerning diabetes. As my field project for Oxlajuj Aj, I hope to collaborate with the other members working with the diabetic patients and create an informative pamphlet of information that is culturally appropriate. Much of this information will stem from the surveys and the efforts of the WK members.

It’s been a month and a half of exposure to Kaqchikel, new friendships, and observing the committed and hard-working Wuqu’ Kawoq members. Every person within Wuqu’ Kawoq maintains such integrity and passion towards their work. WK is comprised of remarkable people and I am truly excited to contribute this year, and I hope the years following. This year has begun with so many important companionships within WK and within the Kaqchikel community. Claire and I as interns are looking forward to contributing towards child malnutrition, diabetes, and collaborations with the midwives. There is much to come and build upon within just these beginning months in Guatemala.

"Losing Calories So That Others Can Gain Them" – Innovative Fundraising 101

7/23/10, 11:00 am, posted by Pat O'Brien

When an organization, such as Wuqu’ Kawoq, begins to effectively address problems as big and basic as the clean drinking water, child malnutrition and primary healthcare issues are in Guatemala, the requests for its assistance and expertise grows rapidly. Of course, with this kind of growth in services there has to be at least an equal increase in funding.

Fundraising is not often viewed as terribly glamorous, as the spot light is usually trained on the projects and people on the ground (as it should be). And, funding dollars are seldom easy to obtain....there is a lot of competition out there for each and every one. Nevertheless, successful fundraising is very rewarding (no pun intended). If we look around and keep ears open, there is a good chance that there is someone we know that is quietly looking for a good cause to support.

A case in point happened this past February when I overheard a fellow Rotarian mention he was looking for a worthy organization to help out. His name is Scott McDermott of Sylvan Lake in Alberta, Canada, owner of a very successful gym, Best Body Fitness.

Scott is always looking for ways to inspire health and fitness with his clients and is equally passionate about helping the less fortunate in the global community. So, Scott came up with a plan to challenge his members to record all the calories they burned off in the gym, during a one week period. At the end of the challenge, Scott would tally up the calories lost and donate one cent per calorie to a needy cause.

The timing couldn’t be better! I told Scott about WK’s Child Malnutrition Project in Socorro and he immediately said that he would be happy to direct the money to the project. The results were superb! There were 146,350 lost calories recorded, resulting in a $1463.50 for Wuqu’ Kawoq, so that the children of Socorro would have a better chance to gain calories. To make the donation even more effective, Scott made the donation on March 16th through the Global Giving Matching event, which meant the donation grew by another 30%! A great big thank you to Scott and his supporters!

Do you belong to a gym that might want to adopt this sort of fundraiser? How about other ideas that would appeal to a corporate sponsor and their employees or patrons? Approaching fundraising from a unique angle can perhaps draw in a bigger crowd and hopefully more funding for even greater expansion of our programs and projects. If you have a fundraising idea you need help with, let us know. We can assist with information and support material to make your event a great success!

Nutrition Updates from the Field

7/22/10, 1:22 pm, posted by Sarah Messmer

Nicole Henretty (a registered dietitian, nutrition graduate student from Tufts, and member of Wuqu’ Kawoq for the past year and a half) and I have been working on evaluating, expanding, and improving our nutritional programs here in Guatemala this summer. We are focused mainly in two locations: the small highland town of Paya’ and Socorro, the coastal community where I lived from July 2008 to July 2009. We have been devoting our efforts to two main goals: developing a solid nutritional education program and nutrition education materials, and trying out two new nutritional supplements, Chispitas and PlumpyDoz.

Nutrition Education Initiatives

Paya’ is a beautiful community located at the top of a mountain—reached only by a 30-minute tuktuk ride up a dirt road. Every Wednesday, we have been making this bumpy but gorgeous journey to meet with a group of mothers and midwives from Paya’ who make up the comité in charge of Paya’s child nutrition program. These women are incredible; they are enthusiastic, motivated, and excited to learn as much as possible about complementary feeding, breastfeeding, anemia, diarrhea, vitamins, and more in order to improve the health of the children of their community.

Sarah and everyone in front of the poster that Sarah made for the first nutrition class

Nicole and one of the women demonstrating the size of a baby’s stomach with balloons

Just last week, we taught the mothers how to do point-of-care anemia tests, a crucial component of our initiative to prevent and treat anemia. They were incredibly skilled and are now very comfortable using the machine, which will stay with them at the end of the summer. This week, we will be discussing parasites and diarrhea, as well as helping them to prepare a lesson plan for the following week, when they will be teaching a short class on anemia to the rest of the mothers in the community.

This inspiring comitee will also be continuing the work they have been doing for months now: measuring and weighing the children of Paya’, as well as providing food supplements to the youngest children in order to prevent and treat stunting. Now, however, they will be trying out the new hanging Salter scale, which will not only provide more accurate measurements but also never needs batteries!

Nicole helping the women to use the new scale to weight a child in Paya’

The women in Paya’ measuring the length of one of their children

Chispitas: the new tasteless iron supplement

In both Paya’ and Socorro we have begun to distribute Chispitas (known as Sprinkles in other countries) in order to prevent and treat anemia. Anemia is a significant problem in both communities (in Socorro, about 3/4 of children under 5 are anemic, whereas in Paya’ the rate is about 1/3) and can lead to poor growth and cognitive development. To address this problem, we have been giving iron drops and pills; however, children often refuse to take these medications due to the unpleasant taste and frequent stomachaches that accompany them. To remedy this problem, we have switched over to a fairly new product, Chispitas, which is a tasteless powder that can be added to foods. Since the iron is coated in lipid, the Chispitas simply dissolve and the child cannot taste the iron. In fact, some of the mothers reported that their children actually requested the Chispitas, thinking that they were a sweetener for the food. One child, who likes her Chispitas mixed with purified water, claimed that the Chispitas tasted like, “pura leche!”—or pure milk.

Child in Socorro with Chispitas

Child in Paya' with Chispitas

Looking to the future: PlumpyDoz

In Socorro, we have been providing food supplements for nearly two years now, and we are constantly in the process of re-evaluating and improving our nutrition program. For example, we now provide supplements to all children from 6-24 months in order to focus on preventing stunting. We have been providing Incaparina, a corn-based atol that is commonly eaten throughout Guatemala, and we have seen very positive results overall. However, this supplement is prepared with a fair amount of water, which is not ideal for small children, who need more calorie- and nutrient-dense foods.

For this reason, we have been looking into other types of food supplements, such as PlumpyDoz, a peanut-butter based product designed to be used as a complementary food. Peanut butter, however, is not a commonly eaten food in Guatemala. Before importing large amounts of PlumpyDoz, we have begun a two-week acceptability trial in Socorro with 17 children from 6-18 months of age in order to see if they will actually eat it. If it goes well, we plan to try out the PlumpyDoz at full scale to see if it can produce even further improvements in child growth.

Sarah and Nicole handing out PlumpyDoz to moms in Socorro

So far, mothers and children have reacted positively to the PlumpyDoz. Although not a dietary staple like Incaparina, the children have liked the taste. Mothers have found it fairly easy to use, feeding it to their children in many forms, from mixing it with beans to giving straight spoonfuls. At the end of this week, we will be heading back to Socorro to do some more extensive follow-up interviews and analysis of the best steps to take to continually improve the program. And, of course, to spend time platicando with the moms of the community, who are our friends and partners in the project.

Updates on Diabetes Programs

7/22/10, 1:12 pm, posted by Anita Chary

For the past several years, Wuqu' Kawoq has been providing diabetics with free consultations, medications, and nutritional advice. As the number of diabetics we encounter has been growing rapidly, this summer, the directors of ACOTCHI approached us about the possibility of holding nutritional classes and forming support groups for diabetics in the highlands. In order to plan for these endeavors, as well as to evaluate and improve our ongoing diabetes programs, we have been conducting preliminary research with our diabetic patients.

Using a survey put together by our team of nutritionists (Nicole Henretty, a registered dietician, and Sarah Messmer, medical student) as well as ethnographic interviews, we have been assessing patients' knowledge, attitudes, and practices concerning diabetes. One of Wuqu' Kawoq's new interns, Miranda Greiner, recently worked with me and several midwives and collaborators in Comalapa to perform interviews and 24-hour food recalls in Kaqchikel, as well as a focus group. Additionally, for the last several weeks, I have been working with Wicha Ixtajop, who coordinates care for diabetics in Santiago, to better understand our patients' experiences with diabetes and health care in general.

We have gained many insights from this research so far. First, the family plays a significant role in patients' abilities to follow a diet, and few patients are aware that diabetes is often a hereditary condition. Therefore, nutritional education targeted at the families of diabetics will be beneficial. Second, many diabetics feel isolated and would like to hear about others' experiences with the disease. Furthermore, every single patient we have talked to has interpreted the onset of the disease as the result of stress, poverty, and poor mental health. We hope to coordinate support groups about these themes, as well as diet and exercise, in the near future. Third, due to the variety of medical services available in Guatemala, many of which are poor quality, patients often receive contradictory and confusing information about the disease from doctors, pharmacists, herbalists, family members, and friends. We are hoping that our educational classes will be able to address some of these issues.

We will be continuing our research with diabetics in our other clinical sites for the rest of the summer, and hope to sponsor classes taught by midwives and health promoters over the next six months. As I continue to coordinate ethnographic efforts, Sarah and Nicole are developing posters and a curriculum, while Miranda has been working on a Kaqchikel pamphlet defining diabetes, common symptoms, and treatments for patients.

More than $3,000 raised during Global Giving Event

7/22/10, 11:26 am, posted by Brent Henderson

On June 16th we asked our supporting partners to respond to the needs of Guatemala’s victims of Hurricane Agatha by giving during Global Giving’s Bonus Day. You responded by generously giving $3,085. Though Global Giving’s matching funds ran out by noon that day, we still managed to raise $3,292 for the entire event! This money has been put to use making sure the communities we work with have the basic things they need to rebuild their lives after Agatha. In more than a dozen towns, we have been active providing emergency relief, clean water, and medical supplies.

For all of you who gave on Bonus Day, we offer our greatest thanks. We don’t know when the next Bonus Day will be, but you can be sure we’ll let you know about it. In the mean time, we also want to remind you that we now have the option to become a regular monthly supporter. Just take a few minutes to set up your donation here and WK will automatically receive your donation every month. Remember, WK needs your support to continue making a difference in the lives of hundreds of people.

Contributions to our work can be made by following this link.

Pacific Council Report on Violence Against Women

7/15/10, 2:18 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

An interesting report from the Pacific Council on International Policy's Women's Empowerment Initiative on violence against women in Guatemala features both Wuqu' Kawoq and our partner organization, ACOTCHI. You can download and read the report here.

Recovering from Trauma - UVG work post-Agatha

7/15/10, 2:18 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

We are proud to be collaborating with the UVG department of psychology as they work to help affected communities deal with the psychological trauma of Agatha in the depts of Solola and Chimaltenango. Here are some photos they provided of their expressive arts work with children.

A Guatemalan Town's Recovery

6/25/10, 7:05 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

A very good article on Agatha-related events in San Antonio Palopo by our friend Kara Andrade, published yesterday on the Americas Quarterly. Read it here.

La Utz Awäch?

6/25/10, 7:05 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

This week things are slowly returning to normal. Although we continue our relief efforts in many towns, we have also resumed many normal activities, including regular clinics. As evidence that life goes on, and that the human spirit is resilient in the face of crisis, I give you this short video of children from one of our clinics singing a Kaqchikel greeting to a very familiar tune.

Updates Paquip, Santiago, Kab'lajuj Ey

6/20/10, 10:05 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

On Friday the psychology team from the Universidad del Valle returned to Paquip to continue post-disaster stress exercises with the community.

At the same time, we resumed some regular clinical activities in Santiago Sacatepéquez.

Friday was also the closing day for Kab'lajuj Ey, our Kaqchikel language field school.

Updates Paya'

6/20/10, 10:05 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

On Thursday we returned to Paya' for our second week of emergency medical care. Fortunately, the incidence of acute diarrheal illness and respiratory infections is decreasing this week, and we feel that we have probably gotten over the hump. Likely our normal medical and community activities will recommence next week.

Surveying damage in Paya'

6/20/10, 10:05 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Peter and Gabina looking down at a landslide in Paya'. Credit: K Cohen

Installing emergency water system

6/20/10, 10:05 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Water committee and engineers installing emergency water cisterns in Paquip. Credit: K Cohen

Pictures from Saquitacaj refuge shelter - clinical consults

6/20/10, 10:05 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Patient from Paquip. Credit: K Cohen

Emily and Keira seeing patients. Credit: K Cohen

Thelma and Keira seeing patients. Credit: K Cohen

Thelma and Keira seeing patients. Credit: K Cohen

Thelma and Keira preparing medications. Credit: K Cohen

San Jose Poaquil and Paquip

6/16/10, 5:35 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

We went to San Jose Poaquil, first stopping by the albergue in Sacitacaj, where health seems to be generally stable since we visited last week. Subsequently, we were off to Caserio Nuevo, a large and very isolated aldea which had requested our presence. We were assisted there by a very enthusiastic Peace Corps volunteer who has been living in the community for over a year.

The core community itself sustained only minor damage from the storm; however, some 6 kilometers of water piping were wiped out, and the local estimate is that water will not be restored for some 3 months. As a result, we saw quite a bit of diarrheal illness. We will be working over the next week or so to assist the community with some temporary emergency water plans.

In Paquip, components of the emergency water system were installed, and the engineering team began scouting and designing for the permanent replacement system as well as advising on a new flood water management ditch being excavated in the center of town.

Sta Catarina and Paquip

6/16/10, 5:35 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Monday morning we got up very early in the morning to make it to Santa Catarina Palopo from Antigua, where we had spent Sunday reorganizing and having meetings. We spent the day seeing patients in collaboration with the local Ministry of Health Post, treating common illnesses and collecting data on the health effects of the disaster. We were very encouraged to see that the incidence of diarrhea was quite low; evidence again that at least some relief efforts in town, both ours and those of many others, have been successful. Unfortunately, the incidence of acute respiratory infections was quite high, and I suspect this will continue for a while until the housing and mud gets sorted out. The day was highly successful, and we have been asked back for next week.

In Paquip, the engineering team finished designing the emergency water system.

Engineering updates

6/16/10, 5:35 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Two engineering volunteers arrived in Antigua on Saturday night, and so we spent Sunday morning briefing them on the situation in Paquip, where they will be working all week. They were anxious to get moving, and so left for Tecpan after the meetings ended. After being installed in their hotel they were able to make it out to Paquip to meet the local water committee and other leadership and to begin scouting.

From these meetings as well as their observations, the decision was made to begin working immediately on an emergency temporary water distribution system for the half of the community that was cut off from the water lines.

Santa Catarina - teaching about Q Beta filters

6/12/10, 6:36 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Engineers from del Valle assemble Q Beta filters

6/12/10, 6:36 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Medical care Saquitacaj and Santa Apolonia

6/12/10, 6:36 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Today we coordinated a number of different medical activities. One of our teams went to visit victims of the landslides in several aldeas in the municipality of Santa Apolonia. This work was closely coordinated with the Santa Apolonia Catholic Parish which has been helping to lead relief efforts there. The most tragic visit was to provide medical care to the two surviving members of a family of eleven whose home was buried by a landslide.

The other team went to provide medical care to families housed in the relief shelter in Saquitacaj. Strikingly, these families are relatively healthy which much less diarrhea than we encountered in Paquip. We think this is a success story, as we were able to respond very quickly last week in this aldea and delivered Q Beta water filters to all those who had their homes disrupted.

Medical care Paquip

6/12/10, 6:36 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Yesterday we were in Paquip, where we saw about 80 patients. Water has been restored to one half of the community, but the other half remains without water as the water pipe traversed a region between the two communities where the landslide occurred. In addition to breaking the tube, the landslide injected mud and sand into the downhill portion of the tube, essentially clogging most of the water pipe in that half of the village. In preparation for a visit from EWB engineers, our team gathered some more data on the water system and discussed potential solutions with members of the local water committee.

Regarding medical care, virtually 100% of the patients seen were suffering from acute diarrheal illness, which underscores the need to get water back on line. Restoring running water to half of the community is the first step. Additionally, last week we provided Q Beta filters to those who lost their homes. However these steps are not sufficient, and restoring water to the other half of the village is urgently needed. We are eagerly awaiting our week-long visit with the EWB volunteers this coming week.

We also were visited by the team from the department of psychology at the Universidad del Valle, who provided a brief teaching session on anxiety reduction techniques to a group of assembled patients. We hope to coordinate more sessions like this in coming weeks.

Dr. Cohen, a volunteer physician from the Brigham and Women's Hospital joins us today and will be with us into next week.

Video of Medical Consulta- Paquip

6/10/10, 10:20 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Video of Agatha Damage - Sta Catarina

6/10/10, 10:20 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Updates from Paya'

6/10/10, 10:20 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Today we visited Paya' to work with community collaborators and ACOTCHI. One bridge out with a scary little ride across an improvised log bridge, but otherwise the road was actually in quite good shape. There was a lot of damage in Paya, and the community is quite unsettled, in fact a lot of talk about relocating the village en masse. All in all, three houses destroyed and a few others damaged. Water service was interrupted in all 3 sectors for several days. Luckily, we were able to finance the replacement of the tuberia, so all sectors are back on line as of today. We also delivered a limited number of Q Beta filters to the families most affected. Medical care underscored the water interruption - everyone we saw was suffering from diarrhea. We will be back next week.

Updates from Engineers without Borders

6/10/10, 10:20 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Thanks to Engineers without Borders, who posted information about the Guatemala post-Agatha situation in their monthly members' newsletter. As a result, we have already been hearing from many engineers and in fact the first are arriving this weekend!

Updates from San Antonio

6/10/10, 10:20 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Today two staff members again visited San Antonio Palopo to discuss health needs with the Centro de Salud and the municipality. We delivered another package of emergency medicines for their use, and we agreed to offer weekly medical jornadas through June to assist with the increased needs at this time. We also investigated closely the situation in the aldeas, as we had some concerns that perhaps some aldeas had suffered significant loss but were being underreported. However, it does seem that most damages (as well as loss of life) occurred in the town center, with outlying aldeas mostly being affected by interruption of water lines and some property damage. Agua Escondida in particular seems to have sustained some damage but not to rival that which occurred in the town center.

Updates from Santa Catarina

6/10/10, 10:20 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Today we organized the site visit to Santa Catarina Palopo by the engineers from the Universidad del Valle. We took a much more extensive tour of the damage than last week - and it is much worse than it appeared at first glance. 64 homes completely destroyed. We may post more video/photos of this later, although this is probably not necessary at this point. We took several hours to interview many of the families affected at had the privilege of being invited into their homes to survey damage to walls and other other support structures. Subsequently we had an excellent meeting with the alcadia and agreed that the engineers would focus on a general site assessment to help prioritize reconstruction efforts and to facilitate a longer term collaboration with del Valle, ourselves, and others.

Finally late this evening the water filters from Guatemala arrived in Santa Catarina. We were able to distribute water filters to all 64 affected families, with the help and collaboration of Bombas de Guatemala and the municipal leadership of Santa Catarina. Thanks also to our visitors from the Universidad del Valle who happily worked late into the night assembling filters.

Video of Q Beta filters- Paquip

6/9/10, 6:19 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Updates from Comalapa

6/9/10, 10:09 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

This is repost from the San Juan Comalapa municipal website (dated 6/9/10).

Las fuertes lluvias por el paso de la Tormenta Agatha, provocaron deslaves en las montañas de la aldea Payá donde se ubican los nacimientos que abastecen de agua potable a más del 50% de la población. El lodo y el agua arrasaron con varios nacimientos y cajas de captación, como también la mayor parte de la tubería.

Asimismo las lluvias hicieron crecer el caudal de río Pixcayá, por lo que también dañó el sistema de agua ubicado a orillas de dicho río, el lodo ingresó a la caseta donde se encontraba la bomba y el generador eléctrico, esto provocó daños considerables al sistema. Este nacimiento abastecía del vital líquido especialmente al Barrio Chichocón.

Updates from Santa Catarina

6/9/10, 6:19 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Yesterday we had several productive meetings in Santa Catarina. After consultation with the Puesto de Salud, we agreed to provide once weekly medical care to help them respond to the increased need that they have been seeing in the wake of Agatha

We also met with the local government to discuss water filter distribution and the arrival of a team of engineers.

We ran into members of both a Heart to Heart team and Vivamos Mejor in Santa Catarina and had pleasant exchanges and shared information on each other's efforts.

Updates from Panajachel

6/9/10, 6:19 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Yesterday our Biosand filter team arrived from the coast with their equipment. Thanks to a collaboration with Mayan Families, they are safely housed and have a good place to work. Several albaniles from Mayan Families and perhaps other organizations will be working with our team to learn the process of making Biosand filters. This solution is not an immediate cure to the water ills that plague us here on the Lake post-Agatha, as the filters take a few weeks to make. However, they are easy to construct and have a very long life; our thought is that they will provide a medium to long-term solution in areas where the water infrastructure remains off-line for a long time. At the same time, several groups on the Lake will have the opportunity to learn how to construct and use these filters. The strategy is meant to complement urgent water efforts, such as the Q Beta filters that we have been distributing in targeted areas.

Updates from Tecpan disaster relief meeting

6/7/10, 10:00 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

This evening we attended the daily meeting of the emergency relief council in the municipality. There was much talk about the logistics of food distribution and the maintenance of the shelters. The army is helping with logistics.

Some of the valuable information that we learned: Most of the road access to aldeas has been reestablished; Chijacinto and Chicapir are the only aldeas that still do not have passable roads. Attendees commented that the aldeas of Paraxquin, Tesoro, and Pamesul have not received much help yet.

The number of families over the weekend in the central Tecpan shelter was 42; today some have returned to their homes and only 24 remain.

The municipal sector most affected by the storm was La Giralda. Numbers for this sector are as follows: 39 house destroyed; 88 houses in comprised locations; 49 houses that need cleaning and removal of mud; 8 houses with only minor damages. Sanitation: 95 families with drainaged and 69 without. Potable water: 140 families without water and 19 who have water service restored.

Updates from Saquitacaj (San Jose Poaquil) and Santa Apolonia

6/7/10, 10:00 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Today we met up with the priest from Santa Apolonia who has been helping with water filter distribution and other activities. He took us on a brief tour of the damage, which is relatively limited, however several destroyed homes and many at risk of future damage due to the pattern in which they are been encroached upon by landslides. There are a number of affected families who are suffering from health consequences, and we will be visiting them on Saturday to perform some basic medical care

Travelling past Santa Apolonia, we arrived in San Jose Poaquil, where we met up with an enthusiastic Peace Corp volunteer who had called us to ask for assistance in Saquitacaj, an aldea of San Jose Poaquil were 15 families lost their homes. We visited the school which is serving as their relief shelter and distributed the remainder of the water filters that we had apportioned to this area.

Updates from Paquip (Tecpan)

6/7/10, 10:00 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Today we were in Paquip, where we had a long and productive meeting with the local emergency council. This aldea has been severely affected. A major landslide wiped out the school and several houses and damaged the church. The road into Paquip is slow going, but passable with heavy machinery from COVIAL working hard.

We finished distributing the 50 water filters in this community

Also we held a brief medical jornada. Many children and adults as well suffering from acute respiratory illnesses and diarrhea. This will probably worsen before it gets better. We will be back in Paquip for a full-day jornada on Friday to address these concerns.

Water updates from Lake Atitlan

6/7/10, 10:00 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Over the weekend we met a few expats who live in San Antonio Palopo who have organized a impromptu pumping station to remove water from the lake and chlorinate it. They have a capacity of about 4500 L per day. They also reported that around the community they are already seeing outbreaks of diarrhea and are worried about the buildup of sewage.

We also learned of the efforts of Amigos del Lago to use their water purifying station in Cerro de Oro to distribute water around the lake as able.

If anyone else has any more information on these efforts, we would be happy to post them here

Video - Radio Roco Solola and San Antonio Palopo

6/7/10, 10:00 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Water Filters - Xecoxol, Xepac, Paquip

6/7/10, 10:00 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Yesterday water filters delivered to Xecoxol, Xepac, and Paquip (aldeas of Tecpan). Pictures available here.

Salud Mental - Agatha

6/7/10, 10:00 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Successful site visit from counselors from the Universidad del Valle to San Antonio Palopo and Santa Catarina Palopo. This will be a long term project to help affected persons deal with the psychological trauma of recent events.

Chacaya- Solola

6/7/10, 10:00 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Over the weekend we received a very detailed report of damages and request for help from the municipality of Chacaya in Solola. This is not a region we are working in actively, but if your organization is working there, please contact us and we can forward the information to you.

Call to action

6/7/10, 1:00 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Guatemala es un país del Istmo centroamericano cuya ubicación geográfica y geológica, le hace vulnerable a una serie de fenómenos naturales entre ellos: terremotos, huracanes, tormentas, sequías e inundaciones que con el cambio climático llegan con más frecuencia y cada vez más fuertes.

En su más reciente historial se vivieron en 1998 la tormenta tropical Mitch y en 2005 la tormenta Stan, que dejaron muertes, destrucción de viviendas, infraestructura social y las pérdidas de cosechas que para miles de personas representaban el sustento familiar, especialmente en las zonas rurales del país, de las regiones Occidental y oriental.

Hoy nuevamente se vuelven a vivir fenómenos naturales de grandes impactos, primero la erupción del volcán Pacaya, que obligó a evacuar a familias de municipios aledaños del departamento de Escuintla, donde se encuentra el volcán, ubicado a unos 50 kilómetros de la capital guatemalteca. La ceniza provocó el cierre del aeropuerto internacional La Aurora, así como daños menores en las calles de la ciudad capital, sobre todo en alcantarillados y en cultivos de café.

Tras la lluvia de arena, tocó tierra guatemalteca, el 28 de mayo, la tormenta tropical Agatha que afectó fuertemente las zonas dañadas por las tormentas tropicales anteriores.

VULNERABILIDAD AMBIENTAL Y SOCIOECONOMICA

Sería mentira afirmar que la vulnerabilidad de Guatemala es solo ambiental, pues mucho del impacto de los fenómenos naturales si hubiera, podido reducirse si no fuera por: las condiciones de pobreza de más del 60% de la población, especialmente rural; el casi inexistente ordenamiento territorial de poblados y ciudades; un desproporcionado equilibrio entre territorio y población (haciendo aquí referencia a la desigual distribución de la tierra y sus efectos en el aumento de la frontera agrícola y de habitación, en detrimento de la destrucción de bosques y cuencas); la ausencia de una infraestructura adecuada: familiar, comunitaria y del país; la débil presencia del Estado, dada su baja recaudación tributaria (10% PIB), su mal funcionamiento por: corrupción, ineficiencia y su apoyo incondicional a los mega-proyectos que continúan dañando el ambiente: minería, petróleo, entre otros; en lugar de realizar proyectos que atiendan las necesidades vitales de la población y la vulnerabilidad socio-ambiental del país.

Con base a la información de CONRED, los eventos que más dañaron a las comunidades fueron las inundaciones, derrumbes y deslizamientos de tierra; especialmente los departamentos de la Costa Sur, Occidente y Oriente y región central.

http://www.conred.org.gt/incidentes/2010/tormenta-tropical-agatha/Gral-Jun02-2010-A1.jpg/image_view_fullscreen

AYUDAS EMERGENTES

Se está movilizando la ayuda a nivel nacional e internacional en alimentos como arroz, frijol, azúcar, atoles y alimentos procesados. Paquetes de higiene y de limpieza. Pañales y otros insumos básicos e indispensables para la sobrevivencia de las personas. Las comunidades requieren financiamiento para hacer remoción de tierra y reparaciones de vivienda.

Sin duda alguna la seguridad alimentaria se verá afectada en el mediano y largo plazo, pues este tipo de eventos tiene un impacto significativo en sus medios de vida. Las inversiones productivas serán fundamentales.

CANALES DE AYUDA

El gobierno central de Guatemala encabeza la Coordinadora Nacional de Desastres –CONRED- , y ha elaborado un plan de respuesta que está en funcionamiento vía las gobernaciones departamentales.

De igual manera otra forma de ayuda se ha organizado por medio de iglesias y sus centros de servicio.

Las organizaciones comunitarias, sociales campesinas, ONG son también medios para hacer llegar la ayuda.

Lo importante es tejer redes que garanticen de manera pronta y directa la ayuda a las familias damnificadas. Para ello les invitamos a ir agregando direcciones y centros, donde se puede hacer llegar la ayuda y personas e instancias que pueden ayudar.

EXIGENCIAS POR UNA VIDA SEGURA Y DIGNA

La demanda que está realizando las organizaciones sociales dentro de la Alianza por el Desarrollo Rural Integral, por una aplicación real de la política y la aprobación de la ley.

Plataforma Agraria tiene igualmente diversas propuestas por la inversión y recuperación de las economías campesinas.

Cientos de consultas comunitarias, están a la espera de ser avaladas por el ordenamiento jurídico nacional, para que sea respetada su decisión de detener: los proyectos de exploración y explotación minera e hidroeléctrica y continuidad de las concesiones petroleras; que bastante ayudaría su reconocimiento a una menor degradación ambiental.

Work updates 6/5/10

6/6/10, 11:00 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Work updates (6/6/10): Today is Corpus Christi, so a slow start to the morning. However this afternoon water filters are being distributed in San Jose Poaquil and Paquip. The team from UVG is visiting San Antonio Palopo. Members of the international support team arriving at the airport this evening.

Work updates (6/5/10): We are happy tomorrow to be helping to coordinate a visit to San Antonio Palopo of a team from the unit of Consejeria Psicologica y Salud Mental from the Universidad del Valle to assess needs for crisis intervention and the management of post-traumatic stress.

Work updates (6/5/10): Emergency shipments of purified water going to San Jose Poaquil (central), Paquip (Tecpan), Xecoxol (Tecpan), and Santa Apolonia.

Work updates (6/5/10): Q Beta water filters purchased from Bombas de Guatemala with the assistance of the Guatemala Sur Rotary club arriving today in San Jose Poaquil and San Antonio Palopo.

Work updates (6/5/10): Emergency shipments of purified water going to San Antonio Palopo.

Work updates (6/5/10): Shipment of medications provided to physicians staffing the central emergency shelter in Tecpan.

MNU alumna works to help Guatemalans displaced by Agatha

6/5/10, 12:30 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Lawrence, Kansas

Thursday, June 3, 2010

A MidAmerica Nazarene University (MNU) alumnus is traveling to Guatemala, working through a Kansas City-based nongovernment organization (NGO) to help Guatemalan families displaced by the ravages of Tropical Storm Agatha.

Emily Tummons, a 1999 MNU graduate and University of Kansas (KU) instructor of Kaqchikel, one of about 30 Mayan languages spoken in Central America, and Anne Kraemer Diaz, a KU doctoral student in anthropology, are founding members of Wuqu' Kawoq [woo-KOO kah-WOHK], an organization formed in 2007 to provide medical services in the native Mayan language of Kaqchikel in Guatemala.

Along with a group of KU students, the two are seeking help for thousands of Guatemalans recently displaced by Tropical Storm Agatha and its ensuing mudslides and flash flooding.

Tummons chairs the Board of Directors for Wuqu' Kawoq and plans to arrive in Guatemala on Friday, June 4. Kraemer Diaz is the organization's executive director, and plans to do field research for her dissertation in Guatemala this summer.

Reports they have gathered from fact-finding crews since Agatha landed May 29 indicate food supplies are scarce and roads are so badly damaged by the mudslides and diverted rivers that supplying the villages will be a challenge in the coming days. Potable water is the largest concern as of right now. Many villages are using schools as shelter for the countless displaced persons whose homes have been destroyed.

Kraemer Diaz says that Wuqu' Kawoq is seeking aid to provide supplies of clean water and food as well as rebuilding efforts in Guatemala's Highland and Lake regions that have been effected by the devastation.

Since the founding of Wuqu' Kawoq, Tummons and Kraemer Diaz have encouraged students to do service learning work in development, language, and medicine in Guatemala. This summer five KU students will be in Guatemala to learn Kaqchikel Mayan language and culture.

The organization's work in the native tongue to provide clean water, encourage language preservation and growth, and support midwifery sets Wuqu' Kawoq apart from other medically minded NGO's in the area. Kraemer Diaz says that Wuqu' Kawoq is seeking aid to provide supplies of clean water and food as well as rebuilding efforts in Guatemala's Highland and Lake regions that have been affected by the devastation.

Wuqu translates as the number seven in several Mayan languages and Kawoq is a day on the Mayan calendar related to medicine.

Agatha 6-4-10 - Various Updates

6/5/10, 12:30 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Work updates (6/4/10): We have been working closely with Neo-Ethicals Pharmaceuticals in Mixco to obtain and distribute quantities of medications to communities in need. Many thanks for their efforts to provide rapid turn-around and low-cost solutions in the face of crisis.

Work updates (6/4/10): Rotary International and the Rotary Club of Guatemala Sur have donated a number of Q Beta water filters. These filters will go to communities in the central Highlands this weekend. Many thanks to the Rotary for its consistent and helpful work in Guatemala.

Work updates (6/4/10). WK staff gave an interview (in Kaqchikel and Spanish) to Radio Roco in Solola yesterday in which they shared information with listeners obtained from our fact-finding missions and solicited assistance. The interview will be posted here soon. 

Agatha 6-3-10 - Various Updates

6/3/10, 23:00 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Updates from the field (6/3/10). San Jose Poaquil: According to information provided by the Ixim Acuala Association, 77 people were taken to the hospital; 45 adults and 73 children were evacuated; and 3 adults and 4 children found dead. 29 families are asking for houses. There is no water in either the villages nor the urban center. There 9 camps, 3 in the village of Chuacruz and 6 in the village of Chimixaya. People are in need of food, water, clothing, and medicine.

Updates from the field (6/3/10). San Martin Jilotepeque: In the village of Vega, 9 families lost their houses and 5 families that lost everything. This is the village that suffered the most damage. Moreover, there is no good access to the village because it is outlying (bordering Pachalum Quiche and San Juan Sacatepequez) and the roads were damaged as well. The people there currently do not have food and water. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Updates from the field (6/3/10). Comalapa: In the village of Paya there are 9 families that lost everything. The Paquip village is also asking for help. Water, food, and medicine are needed. 

Updates from the field (6/3/10). Tecpan: In one area of Tecpan the plumbing was damaged and there are about 70 people in need of water. They request 8 lengths of pipe to fix the water.

Agatha 6-3-10 - San Antonio Palopo

6/3/10, 07:00 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Went to San Antonio today with K to view the destruction and discuss with the Muni different possibilities for relief. We met C once again at the docks of Santa Catarina. Juan from San Antonio brought the municipal boat from San Antonio and told us that if we should need it more to bring in supplies or personnel that we need only ask. We then made our way into San Antonio and were immediately directed to the municipal building. They were expecting us at the Municipal building and had a delegation of everyone excluding the Mayor to inform us of the situation in San Antonio. They said that the Municipality of San Antonio and Santa Caterina are both working together to gather supplies and distribute them to the population accordingly however that due to the roads being cut off to San Antonio the population can only receive supplies via boat. They also expressed concern and had already printed up a report for the following information:

19 People dead 43 houses destroyed 100 houses severely damaged 2 People missing 4 people hospitalized 2 injured not put in hospitalized 500 people evacuated to 6 shelters (Municipal building, municipal market, 4 churches) 40 houses partially destroyed 4 bridges destroyed in the highway water purification system for 25 km destroyed lots of pavement destroyed lots of walls destroyed

Also they provided information to surrounding aldeas in the Municipality of San Antonio

Agua Escondida 15 houses destroyed 15 houses partially destroyed 3 families without food 5 families without latrines 40 families at risk paved streets partially destroyed 8 collapsed alleys Water purification system destroyed for 24 km 300 families with crop damage

Canton San Gabriel house partially destroyed Water Purification system for 24 km crop damage for corn beans and coffee

Canton El Naranjo 3 houses collapsed Water Purification system for 24 km crop damage for corn beans and coffee

Tzancorral 60 bundles of corn lost 400 bundles of beans lost 75 bundles of coffee lost 20 bundles of flowers lost water filtration system for 3.5 km destroyed streets electricity partially lost

Xequistel 15 people affected 2 houses destroyed street destroyed corn bean and potato crops destroyed Portable water system for 18 km

Chuisajcap Portable water system for 15 km neighborhood streets destroyed

Chuiquistel Partially destroyed street

Chipop 15 houses at high risk water purification system for 17 km 2 houses destroyed areas at high risk above the highway streets destroyed by collapse

Ojo de Agua 2 houses destroyed Water Purification system for 15 km bean corn and onion crops destroyed football field destroyed

San Jose Xequinabaj 5 houses destroyed streets destroyed purified water system 4 km 2 wells buried

Chitulul Purified water system destroyed for 4 km destroyed streets 2 houses partially destroyed

Tzampetey Destroyed street no potable water system corn beans and coffee destroyed

Pataj 2 houses partially destroyed crops and streets destroyed

After discussing each of these problems with the Muni we asked about several factors of what they would need in their communities. The first and foremost problem was that of potable water in the entire area. They have been taking some tanks of water up to a chlorination facility in Los Encuentros and have tried to ship water in but it is in such small amounts that it is ineffective. They said that they already have cases of water borne illness and while they have available doctors and nurses in the town they have no medications to treat the patients and not enough purified water to treat the illness. The water filtration system is showing to be the most important implementation across the board around the lake and should be looked at as the number one priority for our services.

The Muni also expressed concerns over several issues. One was the lack of trash services resulting in a buildup of human waste from diapers and other forms of trash that could bring a health concern very soon. The other over food. As of right now they have limited rations due to the lack of transportability, only enough for 1500 meals currently in the schools and some families are lacking adequate food supplies even with the current relief. Also they do not have adequate facilities for cooking with a need for gas stoves and propane to supply them.

I investigated further into their medical needs they stated that they do have doctors available but they said what they needed most was psychological help for their community. They said that the majority of the population is suffering from susto and post traumatic stress disorder and needed immediate counseling to improve the morale and productivity of the community. If we are able we should try to bring down some counseling services for the community and build community support groups for survivors to help them through the reconstruction of their towns. They also stated that while they have received clothing donations that a lot of the women do not accept the donations because they are not traje and cannot wear them. Possibly talking to some of the weaving cooperatives in unaffected areas about restoring some of these items would be an improvement for the indigenous in San Antonio. Currently there are only a few groups doing a little to help the municipality in the relief effort: C, E, and L but there are no other groups bringing in relief of food or purified water. After this they took us to the side where a single landslide had killed 19 people just past the municipal building. Water from the river had removed the earth below some supporting structures after the river had overflowed causing a massive landslide that destroyed 35 houses in one area. This destruction was overwhelming and there were only two community members available to work on removing the debris and search for the two missing persons. We took many pictures and video to try and represent this damage but nothing can compare to seeing it firsthand. As soon as I receive log in information regarding the picassa album I will upload the pictures from today. K will later edit and upload video from the meeting with the muni and various interviews with B. Tomorrow we will go to Solola to view damages.

Agatha 6-3-10 - San Jose Poaquil, San Martin Jilotepeque, Comalapa, Tecpan

6/3/10, 07:00 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

San Jose Poaquil. Personas trasladados al hospital 77 personas. Personas evacuadas 45 adultos y 73 niños. Fallecidos 3 adultos y 4 niños. Familias que perdiron vivienda 29. Ni en las aldeas ni en la cabecera municipal no tienenen agua. Tienen 9 lugares de alberques 3 en la aldea Chuacruz y 6 en la aldea Chimixaya. Informacion que nos proporciono la asociación Ixim Acuala. En la muni brindaron información y tienen menos datos que la asociación y que los datos que dio la muni conicide con lo de la asociación. Asi mismo solicitan, Viveres, agua pura, ropa y medicina.

San Martin Jilotepeque. En la aldea la vega 9 familias perdieron su casa. 5 familias perdieron sus cosas. Es la aldea mas afectada ya que están incomunicados porque la carretera esta mal. Es una aldea lejana con limite con Pachalum Quiche, y con San Juan Sacatepequez. No tienen alimentos ni agua si se puede apoyar con esto dicen que muchas gracias.

Comalapa. 9 familias que perdieron todo en la aldea Paya.

Nuevamente llamaron los de la aldea de Paquip si se les logra conseguir algún apoyo ya que carecen de alimentos y ropa ya que varias familias perdiereon todo. Creo que con las familias que perdieron todo se necesita alimento y ropa. Asi mismo solicitan medicamentos.

Y como vimos hayer casi en todos los lugares la tubería del agua se daño. Al estar recopilando información se me hacercaron unas personas de Tecpan indicando que en un sector 70 familias se quedaron sin agua también porque el agua de ellos una buena parte la tubería es de metal y se dañaron entonces solicitan 8 tubos.

Agatha 6-2-10

6/3/10, 06:48 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Field staff surveying Tecpan and San Jose Poaquil have discovered that the damage has been worse than expected. San Jose Poaquil has been severely affected. Many are isolated without food or water. The aldeas most affected are Chimixaya, Saquitacaj, Hacienda Maria, each with more or less 60 families. In Santa Apolonia, there are about 50 families without food and other basic supplies.  In Tecpan, the aldea that suffered the most is Paquil, with some 75 families victimized. Other aldeas severely affected include: Panabajal--20 families, Chivaraval--20 families, Chuatzunuj--15 families, Pachali--20 families, Pueblo Viejo--20 families, La Giralda--50 families. Data is incomplete as many aldeas in these three municipalities are still out of communication. Our staff are working in Tecpan and San Jose Poaquil today to collected more information.

Agatha 6-2-10

6/2/10, 07:52 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Just past Tecpan we saw several landslides along the road to Los Encuentros. There were many traffic stops because of the amount of damage that the four lane highway had been reduced to one lane.  While we saw mostly destroyed farms along the way the first truly widespread destruction we saw was in the aldeas past Los Encuentros on the way to Solola.  These villages were cut through by rivers created from landslides.  Many houses in the path of these newely formed streams were cut through the middle which as I will explain is where most of the destruction in the area came. After getting to Panajachel we hired a boat and contacted E and C so they could meet us at the docks.  The water in the lake is full of debris and has a much darker and obscured color than usual and around the docks in Pana and Santa Catarina it is completely full of loose plant and trash debris.  Upon reaching the docks at Santa Catarina I found that each of the docks were underwater and people were already fishing out wood debris to use to rebuild parts of their house.  We could see some destruction from flooding at the edge of the lake and water was still running down the main street out into the lake. 

We walked merely 3 houses up and were immediately stopped by an elderly woman by the name L who repeated over and over again that the river had come and washed away her house and please help us.  She also explained that the amount of moving and work required for living now that she is staying in the school and trying to rebuild what was lost was hurting her badly and she then lifted up her corte to show e her very swollen knees. 

We met C as we were talking to her and I asked him to take us to the shelter.  He told us that people were staying in the schools in the government building and in the health post. We then walked a bit up the road to find the school on the right.  Inside the school there were several families waiting in and outside the classrooms.  They told us that most of the people are out rebuilding or working right now but they explained to us what the school was like.  In the school alone which had about 8 classrooms they said there were more than 100 people sleeping and eating each day.  We then asked to see one of the rooms and inside was a small bad of dried corn beans and rice with a couple of plates and about 8 blankets.  They said that about 15 people (~5 adults ~10 children) sleep in one classroom on the floor.  They said they sleep with no mats just on the tile floor.  When I asked about cooking food they said that they have no electricity or stoves so families around have been allowing them to use the stoves in their houses or have merely cooked for them and given them part of their food.  We then asked abotu potable water and they said they just have groups of people scoop up drums of water from the lake and boil them then bring them to the schools and that this was what everyone has been drinking since the storm. 

After this we left and headed to the municipal building to talk with the director there in charge of the relief.  His name was M and he was extremely helpful.  He explained that there are about 400 people in shelters right now and last night that there were officially 80 in the school and more in the other building and around the town.  He said that the town has ~4000 people with 780 families in Santa Catarina and out of those 57 houses have been destroyed and 102 other families have been severely affected.  He then was kind enough to give us a copy of a list of each of the families names that were affected with some cedulas from the official list in the Muni.  We asked then what he thought the greatest need for the town was and he told us that the drainage systems and houses were his highest priority and they have a severe lack of help in that area.  We then asked about potable water and he said that Santa Catarina actually had a city wide water filtration system but that system was destroyed (directly translated burned out so possibly an electrical problem) and that they have only a bit of purified water.   After this we discussed rationing, he told us that 159 families are currently receiving rations of beans, rice, noodles, oil, corn, and maseca.  I saw that they also had liquid INCAP in cartons with straws for distribution.  He told us that he believes the town has about 1 week worth of rations stored right now and he doesn't see a problem with the food supply.  We then asked about medical supplies in the the town and he told us that in the Puesto de Salud there are almost no medications left and that there is no doctor available.  He also said that there is only one pharmacy in town that is privately owned.  He also stated that they have had no visibility of waterborne illness or other maladies. 

After this we went with C and his father for a tour of the entire town.  From the start we noticed that most of the area was covered in rubble and mud.  He took us up the canal that used to allow water to flow safely through the town.  It was at this point that we started seeing severe destruction of each of the houses to either side of the canal and that in places the canal was either filled with rubble and mud or the walls were completely destroyed to allow water to flow freely into the surrounding houses.  We found plenty of houses filled to the windows with mud and many that the roofs were torn off.  In the worst cases support beams and walls were destroyed.  In one house boulders had rolled down from high above in the highway and crushed a house killing 2 people, an 18 year old girl and a 2 year old baby.  We then talked to several families with destroyed houses while they were salvaging what they could find and they all told us that they had evacuated from the homes to a safer location during the storm, which I believe is what minimized the deaths in Santa Catarina in comparison to other towns.  The pictures will show more what damages have occurred and the extent of repair needed. 

After the visit and discussion with B and F we decided that the primary fix needed was the potable water.  Because the town already has an integrated water filtration system it should not be problematic for us to use engineers to find a solution to repairing the facilities and restoring potable water to Santa Catarina.  The second should be the redirection of flows from streets and houses into their dedicated canals.  From this we can start in assisting the population to rebuilding their homes and replanting their farms.  Also in the shelters we should set up a large makeshift pila so that the population living in those areas will not have to bath and wash and cook with the black water from the lake once the water filtration system is back online.  I have already heard from several people that San Antonio is worse but I will see tomorrow with F and K in the afternoon and will try to meet with S and V.  Hope this has been informative and please feel free to respond with questions and I will see if I can answer them to the best my data has to offer.

Agatha 6-1-10

6/1/10, 07:00 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

A team is en route to San Antonio Palopo and Santa Catarina Palopo to perform a needs assessment. We have collected considerable information on needs and damages in the Tecpan area already. More updates tonight.

Announcing Kab'lajuj Ey

Wuqu' Kawoq will host its first ever Kaqchikel field school at our headquarters in Pa K'in this summer: June 7--June 18. It is called Kab'lajuj Ey, named after the day on the 260-day Mayan calendar on which the first day of the 2010 course will fall. We have been busy recruiting native Kaqchikel teachers and inviting students, and we are so excited to see it all coming together.

This intensive immersion course will be very small, a half a dozen students and a half a dozen teachers, so that students can benefit from 8 hours per day of small-group lessons and one-on-one attention from our amazing teaching staff.

The coursework will be tailored to meet the needs of the doctors, interns, students, and other staff who regularly partner with Wuqu' Kawoq. (While Kab'lajuj Ey is hosted by Wuqu' Kawoq, the course is self-supported. The student fees cover all of the teachers' salaries and other expenses.) Our goal is to provide structured opportunities like this every year for our our collaborators, in keeping with WK's stated values of supporting first-language health services to Mayan communities.

If you have any questions about this course, please contact the director, Emily Tummons: emily@wuqukawoq.org.

New brochure!

3/3/10, 06:38 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

We have a brand new tri-fold brochure that you can download here. Please download and distribute widely.

Women's health in Paya'

2/7/10, 04:41 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Paya' is one of the remote communites where we provide women's health services. Last week we had the opportunity to provide prenatal and general gynecological services to a number of women there.

Dr. Melinda Dabrowski consults with a patient. Credit: Emily Tummons

Ana Lopez translates for Melinda. Credit: Emily Tummons

Cristalina and Elvia register patients. Credit: Emily Tummons

The view from Paya'. Credit: Emily Tummons

Another view from Paya'. Credit: Emily Tummons

Child nutrition pictures

2/7/10, 04:31 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Below please enjoy several pictures from our recent pediatrics trips to conduct well-child checks and development treatment plans for several malnourished children.

Dr. Jane Streigel performs a blood test for anemia. Credit: Emily Tummons

Dr. Mike Hill checks a child's growth chart. Credit: Emily Tummons

Elvia, a community volunteer, waiting for patients to arrive. Credit: Emily Tummons

Elvia checks a child's height. Credit: Emily Tummons

Dr. Mike Hill examines a newborn patient. Credit: Emily Tummons

A healthy two-week old infant. Credit: Emily Tummons

Water project updates

2/7/10, 04:21 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Several Wuqu' Kawoq staff and volunteers had the opportunity to visit Socorro to perform pediatric assessments last week. We took a few minutes to visit our water team, who explained to us the process of making and maintaining these filters. It is impressive to see this project develop so quickly; after just a few months already more than half of the filters needed for the community have been constructed. We look forward to exporting this technology to other communities as well!

WK water staff explain the various sediment materials used in filter construction. Credit: Emily Tummons

WK water staff demonstrate the filter assembly line. Credit: Emily Tummons

WK water staff demonstrate the filter assembly line. Credit: Emily Tummons

We were able to video record most of the filter demonstration and we have uploaded it to our YouTube video site. You can view it below:

Socorro site visit and updates

12/31/09, 00:37 am, posted by Anita Chary

Sarah and I just returned to the US after spending a week in Socorro conducting fecal exams, testing children for anemia, and catching up with families in the community. There still appears to be a high incidence of helminth infections, which we are hoping will decline as our clean water project progresses over the next three months. Anemia rates are also high, and we are accordingly exploring new treatment options.

Anita testing children for anemia. Credit: Sarah Messmer

During our home visits, we were able to check up on some of the sicker children of the community and evaluate Wuqu’ Kawoq’s child nutrition program. Community members expressed their content with the work of Mayra and Caty, two social workers who are now responsible for the majority of program implementation. In addition to working with us while we were in Socorro, they worked with community volunteers to deliver Incaparina and dewormers to the community.

Mayra, Caty, Ruben, and Tisha on their way to deliver Incaparina. Credit: Anita Chary

We were pleased to see several children who have made great strides in their growth since Sarah and I left six months ago. With continuous primary care, nutritional supplementation, vitamins, and iron, some of the community’s most severely malnourished infants are now running, jumping, playing, and talking. We had fun visiting with the older children, as well.

Wilber. Credit: Sarah Messmer

Fevin Liset. Credit: Anita Chary

Sarah encourages Jose Antonio to wear his glasses. Credit: Anita Chary

However, we noticed that several infants had grown weaker and sicker since our departure in July. One of Wuqu’ Kawoq’s major findings within this community is that malnutrition begins at about 6 months of age, in part due to delayed introduction and contamination of early complementary foods. We are thus in the process of re-shaping the program to target malnutrition in early infancy.

At the end of the week, we spent some time celebrating the holidays Socorro-style by making tamales with two community leaders, Maria Tahual and Toribia Suhul, who are an integral part of the child nutrition project.

Toribia making tamales. Credit: Anita Chary

Maria making tamales. Credit: Anita Chary

Thanks to the Gephardt Institute for Public Service, Washington University in St. Louis, for contributions to this trip.

Project featured in engineering article!

12/30/09, 11:22 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Read about engineering innovations being explored in our water filter projects here.

Water filter construction underway!

12/30/09, 11:17 pm, posted by Anne Kraemer Díaz

The implementation of the Socorro Water project, a collaboration between Wuqu’ Kawoq, Engineers without Borders at the University of Illinois, the Sylvan Lake Canada Rotary Club and the community of Socorro, is underway! From December 10-12, five community members from Socorro attended training near Santiago, Sololá to learn how to construct Bio-Sand Filters for all the families in Socorro. They were trained by members of Servants 4 Him, an organization focused clean water initiatives and brining Bio-Sand filters to communities all over Guatemala. This past week our community collaborators built the first filters for Socorro! The Bio-Sand filters are being constructed in many developing countries as point of use filtration systems. This will allow families to control their access to clean water in their homes. Filters will be located in every home in Socorro so everyone can enjoy the benefits of clean water.

The training of our community collaborators consisted learning in the classroom about the theory and background of bio-sand filters combined with the hands-on training of how to build filters. The classroom learning focused on the importance of water, sanitation, and health and how the filters can be utilized to promote better overall health for the entire family when used correctly. Following classroom learning they practiced building filters by sifting sand, mixing concrete, making filters, and washing materials to do a filter installation. This training enabled them to return to Socorro with a metal filter mold and begin building on December 14th.

On December 28th Anne and a team of six engineers from Engineers without Borders- University of Illinois will travel to Socorro for ten days to collaborate with the community members on filter construction and overall water conservation and health. Over the ten days the team will build filters and talk with each family on use, maintenance, and cleaning of the filters. The team will also paint filters with the children and help each family decide where their filter should be placed in the household so it can be easily accessed. We will post pictures, stories, and videos on this blog in mid-January about this trip- so please check back. We are excited that clean water is now a reality for the families in Socorro in 2010!

Wuqu' Kawoq receives funding for midwife project

12/6/09, 8:34 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Wuqu' Kawoq is happy to announce that, for the third year in a row, we have again received funding to continue our ground-breaking work with the ACOTCHI midwifery cooperative. We are exceedingly grateful to the Conservation, Food, and Health Foundation for their continued support of our work.

New Fall Newsletter online

11/9/09, 7:32 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

A new Wuqu' Kawoq newsletter is now available online here.

Beyond Development Conference - Summary

11/8/09, 11:10 am, posted by Shom Dasgupta

The conference, “Más que desarrollo: construyendo futuros colectivos,” sponsored by Wuqu’ Kawoq, was held in Pa K’in from October 23-25, 2009 and was a huge success. The three-day event was the product of painstaking organization by several WK staff and board members, most notably Wicha, Anne, Emily, Graham and Peter.

Day 1: The presentations on Day 1 were organized around two themes: “Development – models, critiques, and histories,” and “International collaborations.” On this first day, participants eagerly began an exploration that would continue throughout the conference, examining the interfaces between different themes, perspectives and experiences. It was intellectually bracing to watch as people from a diversity of backgrounds – anthropologists, community leaders, midwives, health promoters and other members of global civil society – spoke to one another across the regnant divides in disciplinary focus and context-specific practice, building on each other’s insights to elaborate a unique and at times heated dialogue.

Kedron Thomas, Erika Yax Cujcuj, Anne Kraemer Diaz and Dominga Pic Salazar opened Day 1 with reflections on the first theme. Thomas, a Harvard anthropologist conducting fieldwork on maquiladoras in Tecpan, offered introductory commentary on the basis of her ethnographic investigation of community perspectives, identifying a number of “unforeseen consequences” of supposed “development” projects, such as the breeding of dependence and externally-driven cultural change. Yax Cujcuj’s talk, I think, challenged the idea of development critiqued in Thomas’s, marking one constructive effort to elaborate a different method—and thus alternative histories—of efforts to promote development. Kraemer’s enlightening presentation on the “third sector” - that is, the sum of social phenomena that fall beyond the limits of the State and the market - placed the preceding two within a broader geographic, historical and political-economic context, confirming the pitfalls indicated by Thomas as well as the possibilities exemplified by Yax Cujcuj’s overview of ACOTCHI’s history. Lastly, Pic Salazar’s brief testimony about her community’s struggle for land reform was a poignant reminder of the centrality of women and effective leadership in effecting structural change.

José Toasa, Ana & Carmen Roquel, Sergio Romero and Shom Dasgupta & Magda Sotz, addressed the second theme, “International collaborations,” from their divergent positions. Toasa, who administers Fundación Interamericana’s budget in Guatemala, described the latter’s objectives and methods in providing financial support for community-driven development projects. Ana & Carmen Roquel, health promoters for ALAS, described the articulation between this nationwide provider of community health services, and local communities that face the joint burden of poverty, gender inequality and ethnolinguistic marginalization. Romero, a professor of anthropology at Vanderbilt University, introduced the theme of North-South academic collaboration, describing successes in the promotion of local investigational capacity through individual, programmatic and institutional support. Dasgupta, a community health worker and student of medicine, public health and medical anthropology, offered reflections in Kaqchikel, with translation by Sotz, on the former’s experience of the impotence of engaged scholarship before the grave health problems of the indigenous poor in Guatemala.

The first day of the conference closed with heated debates about the responsibilities of universities and individual academic investigators to their study communities, and about the goodness of fit between allopathic contraceptive services and those who subscribe to “indigenist” Maya cosmovision. Later that evening, several community leaders continued the discussion by expressing misgivings about the claims of US-based investigators who defended the non-involvement of universities in the pragmatic aspects of development work.

Day 2: Apropos to the first theme of the second day of the conference, “Rural areas,” a contingent of attendees from the preceding day decided not to return for the rest of the sessions. In particular, one conference participant related with indignation how several peers had cited the humble ambience of the conference as the reason for their premature departure. Conference organizers were amused at this elegant illustration of the distance that many workers in the development and human rights industries maintain between themselves and the rural poor.

“Rural areas” included presentations by J. Vicente Macario Cosiguá, Erin Beck, Erika Yax Cujcuj, Peter Rohloff and Nelly Zambrano. Macario, who is a public health auxiliary nurse, discussed his work as the leader of a network of community health promoters that receives support from a Catholic mission in Sololá department. He detailed the gaps in government health services, the effects of which are worst in outlying hamlets where Macario lives and works. Beck, a Fulbright recipient and anthropologist from Brown University, presented a detailed and theoretically informed exposition of the limitations of liberal notions of "women's participation" in development, drawing connections to Yax Cujcuj and Pic Salazar's presentations from the day before. Yax Cujcuj described a new collaborative project between ACOTCHI and Wuqu' Kawoq that provides primary care services to women and children in a poor hamlet near Chiq'a'l. Yax Cujcuj discussed the unique challenges and importance of reaching out to remote communities, and detailed their efforts to build trust by engaging the entire community and prioritizing pragmatic services alongside needs assessment. Rohloff, the medical director and founder of Wuqu' Kawoq, reviewed mainstream press reports and scholarly publications on child malnutrition, emphasizing how supposedly neutral science has helped to elide the suffering of Guatemala's indigenous poor. Lastly, Zambrano presented the work of microcredit organization Namaste, which provides microloans in conjunction with wraparound consultation services which she informally described as "a MBA" for cottage industry entrepreneurs.

The second theme of Day 2, "Languages, technology, and human rights," was comprised of presentations by Deborah Greebon, Kara Andrade, J. Maxwell (Ixq'anil), and Diana Santana. Greebon, a Fulbright recipient and expert on Central American educational policy, presented data demonstrating the ongoing failures of bilingual education in Maya-speaking areas of Guatemala. Andrade, a Fulbright recipient and journalist, gave a dynamic introduction to HablaGuate, an effort to promote community journalism through the use of widely available communication technology. Ixq’anil, a professor of anthropology and linguistics at Tulane University, provided a historical and sociological perspective on the place of Maya languages in the plurilingual context of contemporary Guatemala. Lastly, Santana, a Miami-based spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood, sounded a rousing call to integrate community-driven development with the promotion of human rights in healthcare, developing a constructive discourse for combating the oppressive structures facing politically marginalized communities.

Several first-language Maya-speakers offered their personal reflections on the themes of Greebon and Ixq’anil’s talks. One of these contributors, a very close friend and collaborator of this author, shared a sense of shame about speaking Kaqchikel, and thanked foreign Maya-speakers for encouraging the use of Maya languages. In fact, that contributor has since made a point of speaking in Kaqchikel at home so that his son will learn to speak.

Day 3: The final day of the conference allowed a more informal atmosphere for reflection and solidifying connections between participants. Opening the day with a brief recap of the previous two days, the remaining attendees discussed important themes from the conference: the crucial role of funding, the importance of institutional change, linguistic choice as pragmatic solidarity, and the possibility for sharing expertise through strong inter-NGO and inter-community networking. With regard to this last point, several community leaders have reported promising developments that arose as a result of connections established during the conference.

The conference closed with a xukulen, or Maya ceremony, offered by Wuqu’ Kawoq and attendees and presided over by Rolando, an aj q’ij from Tecpán. The closing activity of the conference, a demonstration of the giant kites for which Pa K’in is famous, was a fitting metaphor for the conference. On All Saints’ Day, these kites allow families to imagine alternative modes of communication with their deceased loved ones and ancestors. It is hoped that the conference marks a new beginning for communities and NGOs, fostering imaginative connections and collaborations between them.

Two specific Wuqu’ Kawoq projects that grew out of the conference are an effort to develop a community-friendly guide to NGOs and development resources, as well as a bilingual publication of the conference proceedings.

To learn more about the conference, please see the official website: www.futuroscolectivos.com.

Beyond Development Conference website is up

10/9/09, 9:49 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Website for the conference is up and can be accessed here.

Beyond Development Conference Flyers - Download and Distribute!

10/1/09, 11:00 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Beyond Development Conference - October 2009 - Santiago, Sacatepéquez

10/1/09, 11:00 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Beyond Development: Building collective futures in Guatemala October 23-25, 2009 - Santiago Sacatepéquez, Guatemala

With the signing of the Guatemalan Peace Accords in 1996, hopes were raised among many international and Maya scholars, activists, and community workers that the coming years would see new opportunities for the reversal of the profound health, economic, and social disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous Guatemalans. However, now more than a decade later, very few of these possibilities have materialized. Although there have been small advances in some areas, such as bilingual education, the continued implementation of neoliberal economic policies and the rapid erosion of the public service sector have had a stifling effect. Despite the promises of the Accords, Guatemala to date continues to have one of the lowest rates of social services expenditures in the hemisphere. Most indices of health and economic wellbeing have not improved in the post-war decade, and Maya in Guatemala continue to face the prospect of economic disadvantages, barriers to health care access, and food and water insecurity.

It is against this backdrop that the explosive growth of the development sector in post-war Guatemala must be analyzed. According to some estimates, the number of NGOs working in Guatemala has grown in the last decade from under 2,000 to more than 10,000. Although it is too early to know for certain what the full effects of this industry growth will be, the experiences of many community organizers and development workers, as well as an emerging anthropology and development literature, suggest that many development organizations in Guatemala have had considerable trouble building successful community movements and achieving lasting results.

In this conference, we will bring together international and national scholars, Maya community leaders, and members of the development community to discuss these and other issues related to development, civil society, and the creation of prosocial networks and alternative futures. In particular this gathering is envisioned as a "working conference" designed to foster exchange between local community based organizations and networks and international organizations and scholars. As such, preference will be given to proposals which address issues of accountability and collaboration, as well as those which have the potential to generate new ideas and partnerships.

To inquire about participation in the conference, please email us.

Child malnutrition team

10/1/09, 10:45 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Here are some pictures of our staff and volunteers from Socorro, who are responsible for managing our child growth surveillance and malnutrition programs there.

DCSSMI launches in Comalapa

9/6/09, 9:44 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Some photos from the recent launch of the DCSSMI, the Desarrollo Comunitario Sostenible en Salud Materno Infantil, a pilot project designed to scale up maternal-child health initiatives in areas surrounding San Juan Comalapa. The project is a collaboration between Wuqu Kawoq, ACOTCHI, and VMM.

WK featured in Global Competency website

8/21/09, 6:05 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

I was recently interviewed for several short film pieces sponsored by the American Counsel on Education to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title VI legislation in the United States. You can see me talking about Wuqu' Kawoq's vision and work here. Also take some time to check out some of the other interesting videos on the website.

New work with rural women and children in Comalapa

8/11/09, 7:00 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

There have been a number of recent exciting developments in Wuqu' Kawoq's work in Chiq'a'l (San Juan Comalapa), in partnership with ACOTCHI. Several months ago we received a generous grant from the Pajwell Foundation to expand prenatal care services in the region. In response to feedback from patients and collaborators, we determined that a significant component of this expansion must include outreach to rural villages (aldeas) surrounding Comalapa. For example, we had noticed that, with the recent economic downturn, travel to the central clinic was becoming an economic hardship for rural patients. Consequently, in July of this year, we launched the first of what we hope to be many rural outreach arms designed to complement Wuqu' Kawoq's and ACOTCHI's urban clinical activities.

These activities will be centered on the rural community of Paya', located approximately 7 kilometers from the town center. The community, composed of about 60 families, is heavily agricultural, largely monolingual in Kaqchikel, and has limited access to basic infrastructure. There are no health programs currently operating in the community.

In July, staff from ACOTCHI had a series of intensive meetings with members of the community of Paya'. Eric Sorenson, Wuqu' Kawoq's international volunteer based in Comalapa, was also present at these meetings. We presented our vision of beginning to provide basic primary health services to the community. In a large meeting at which representatives of most families were present, the community voted "yes" to the project.

The remainder of July was spent conducting extensive demographic and health surveys in the community, in an attempt to develop a better sense of the community's most pressing needs. This survey work was conducted by 6 students on ACOTCHI's school of midwifery. As part of their training in midwifery, they have received intensive training in public health concepts and survey methodology, and this survey work was part of their clinical practicum. We are currently in the process of analyzing the valuable data contained in these surveys, and we anticipate that clinical programs will be up and running this fall.

View of the entrance to Paya'

Wuqu' Kawoq and ACOTCHI staff collaborating on survey development

The field survey team posing before beginning the day's work

Members of Paya' voting "yes" on the project

Updates on the Socorro water project

7/28/09, 9:23 pm, posted by Russell Rohloff

The water project in Socorro took a significant change of direction over the last two to three months. Earlier in the year the University of Illinois chapter of Engineers without Borders had almost finished the design and implementation planning of a community-wide water treatment system. It was at that point that our previously willing landowner backed out of a verbal agreement to sell specific land to us to allow construction of the project. A review of other potential parcels did not turn up a good fit for the project flow and pressure needs and the project needed to be reassessed.

The UIUC-EWB team then approached the Wuqu’ Kawoq Board of Directors with a proposal to implement a household-based “point of use” approach. This approach uses the same technology that we were designing around for the community system, but packages it in a 12” x 12” x 36” concrete container. Each unit can supply 1 liter of purified water per minute and are designed to supply the potable water needs for a household of 6 to 10 people. The treatment effectively removes the majority of disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and parasites.

We are currently constructing a test filter and hope to begin project implementation in the late summer. Our plan is to bring two interns on board who will assist us in the in-country implementation of this project using local villagers to construct and install the filter units on-site. Each unit only costs $25 to $50 to construct and outfit and represent a significant cost savings compared to a community system serving 100 to 125 households. If you are interested in supporting the water project in Socorro please indicate that when you send in your contribution.

For more information on the point of use treatment units we recommend the following websites:
www.friendswhocare.ca
www.cawst.org
www.manzwaterinfo.ca

Exciting new book on the Ch'orti' Maya

6/15/09, 4:05 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Brent Metz, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas and Wuqu' Kawoq advisory board member, is co-editor of a recent anthology on the Ch'orti' Maya, published by the University of Florida Press. More information on the book can be found here.

Spring newsletter published

6/15/09, 3:41 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Our newsletter for Spring 2009, covering major events from January-April 2009 was mailed out several weeks ago. It can also be downloaded here.

Updates from Socorro

4/22/09, 11:30 am, posted by Anita Chary

In Socorro, one of our health corps volunteers, Shom Dasgupta, recently held nutritional consultations for the children most severely affected by malnutrition. On this trip, Shom brought along a friend and co-worker, Dominga Pic Salazar, who works as a nurse and health promoter in San Lucas Toliman. In the downtime between weighing children and conversing with patients, we were able to bounce ideas off of Dominga, who has a great deal of experience with both community health and development projects. We hope to continue collaborating with the health promoters of San Lucas in the coming months.

With the insights gleaned from this March clinic, we have been working to determine the degree to which supplementing children’s diets with Incaparina, a fortified corn-gruel, is improving their health. In difficult cases, where the children are not growing, we try to identify the social and family factors which may be contributing to the child’s poor health and address them. Overall, we have seen slow but encouraging changes in overall village-wide child growth since beginning Incaparina and vitamin supplementation. We hope to see even more improvements as the program continues throughout this year and into the future.

We are currently evaluating our program and soliciting community input through ethnographic research. Lately we have been focusing our efforts on interviewing the mothers of Socorro, sharing in their experiences of health, poverty, and the challenges of raising children. Through listening to these stories and discussing the difficulties these mothers face, we are coming to understand more fully the needs of the community and the most appropriate ways to combat malnutrition.

Currently the nutrition program is in transition, as volunteer members of the community assume more responsibility for the day-to-day operations. Once we leave for medical school in July, the community will take over administration of the program entirely. Consequently, we have also been devoting a large portion of our time to training some individuals from Socorro to use computers and the Internet. We will all use this method to stay in touch and to communicate child growth data among each other.

Finally, we have also been working to develop a bilingual, user-friendly and comprehensive electronic patient database with the help of Adam Fischer. Adam is a database expert who has generously donated his time and technical skills, as well as computer equipment, to assist us in this task. With the development of this database, we will be able to maintain portable medical records for all childen which can be accessed both locally, for data entry, and also abroad by WK staff.

Wuqu' Kawoq receives funding for prenatal care

3/4/09, 11:30 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Wuqu' Kawoq is pleased to announce that we have received new funding from the Pajwell Foundation for our work with midwives and pregnant women in the department of Chimaltenango. Specifically, this funding is targeted to the expansion of prenatal care services in the rural areas where our partner midwifery affiliate ACOTCHI works. We will keep you updated as this exciting work unfolds!

Children of the Americas

3/4/09, 10:34 pm, posted by Sarah Messmer

Anita and I have recently returned from another adventure in the always exciting and ever-changing lives of the two Wuqu’ Kawoq interns: road-tripping across Guatemala with a group of seven surgery patients to take advantage of our collaboration with Children of the Americas (COTA). COTA is a US-based organization that sends a large group of doctors and surgeons to Guatemala for one week each year to take over a national hospital and offer a blitz of free surgeries. This year, the COTA trip landed in the highlands—in Santa Cruz del Quiche—which meant quite a few hours in the car and a bit of unexpected chilly weather for our patients from Socorro. In the end, all of the travel and extra blankets were worth it: all seven of our patients--from Socorro, Comalapa, and Tecpan--are recovering well from their surgeries, and we could not be more grateful to all the hard work and kindness that went into organizing the COTA trip.

COTA brought down truckloads of medical supplies and surgeons of several different specialties—obstetrics, orthopedics, plastics, and general surgery—in order to provide a great range of surgeries to patients. The COTA surgeons were kind enough to allow Anita and me (as future medical students) to watch several of the surgeries. While not watching surgeries or taking care of our group, we worked as interpreters, helping out wherever we could in the general medicine, pre-op, post-op, orthopedic, and dental clinics. We were able to share some of the Guatemalan Spanish idiosyncrasies we have learned along the way: for example, that when a K’ichee’-speaking patient says that their “feet” hurt, they may in fact mean that their legs hurt, since in K’ichee’ the same word is used for both “foot” and “leg.” Although working as translators for many hours a day can be tiring, we had a fantastic time chatting with the patients, working with the doctors and nurses, and learning a great deal about medicine along the way.

We would like to take the opportunity on this blog to send out a great big thank you to all hose who made the COTA trip possible: we, and especially our patients, are very grateful for your hard work!

Nutrition clinics - January

2/4/09, 2:34 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Another of our core health volunteers, Shom Dasgupta, visited our child health project in January for three days to perform nutritional evaluations of village children. Working with our field team, including interns Anita and Sarah and the village women who are in the process of learning how to administer the program themselves, he was able to perform in-depth assessments for a number of children. These assessments allow us to individualize our approach to the nutritional needs of each child, thereby providing higher-quality care.

Shom evaluating a child

Point-of-care testing for iron-deficiency anemia

Wuqu' Kawoq obtains funding for child nutrition project

1/6/09, 9:30 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Wuqu' Kawoq has just received word from the Child Health Foundation that our grant application "Addressing determinants of child malnutrition in a rural Guatemalan village" has been funded. This grant, which represents a significant expansion of our clinical activities in the region of Socorro and Chocolá, is focused on addressing the epidemic rates of childhood growth stunting in the region. It represents yet another effort by us and our community partners to integrate culturally and linguistically appropriate primary care services into the larger context of community revitalization.

Fecal Exams, Incaparina, and Anemia Tests in Socorro

1/6/09, 9:22 am, posted by Anita Chary

One of our major efforts in Socorro over the last few weeks has been anemia screening among children under 14. We have encountered a spectrum of reactions--some kids don't even show that they felt a prick, while others scream and cry so much that it turns into a four person job: I end up sticking the child with the needle, the mom ends up holding the child in her lap, an older sibling coos to quiet the screams, and Sarah squeezes the blood from the finger while sticking it into the Hemoglobin testing machine. One of us simultaneously fumbles around in our backpacks for one of our 150 cartons of Lemonheads, graciously donated to us by Alex Zadjel, which often proves to be the saving grace that makes the wailing stop. Although we have not finished with the tests yet, the rates of anemia so far are alarming. Nearly 90% of the children and several of the pregnant women we have screened so far have anemia, which we are treating with iron pills and drops for younger children.

In other news, after the clinic, we managed to collect all of the remaining fecal samples and are happy to say that we have conducted fecal exams on all of the children under 14 in Socorro. About 30% of kids in the village had parasitic infections, all of which have been treated.

Our other large undertaking of the month was starting to provide nutritional supplements of Incaparina, a fortified corn-based gruel, to children under 5 years of age with the highest risk for severe malnutrition. This so far includes a group of 33 children. Supplementing an additional 20% of their daily caloric intake through incaparina has already made a difference for several of the kids, whose parents are happy to see them getting chubbier and rosy-cheeked, playing with more energy, and attempting to take their first steps. We are also gathering information about families' diets, nutritional habits, and thoughts about receiving food supplements through interviews so that we can better our program and expand our Incaparina operation to include more children in the coming months.

November clinics and other activities

11/23/08, 4:50 pm, posted by Sarah Messmer

Over the last few weeks, Wuqu’ Kawoq staff have been busy all over Guatemala managing four clinics in Comalapa, Santiago, Tecpán, and Socorro.

Peter arrived to Antigua on November 6th with suitcases jam-packed with medicines. We left early the next morning for Comalapa, where we saw about 80 patients over the next two days at the clinic run by the midwives of ACOTCHI. ACOTCHI has recently moved into a new space, and as a part of the “clinic-warming,” children participating in the literacy program jointly sponsored by Wuqu’ Kawoq and ACOTCHI made beaded artwork and vibrant garlands that greet visitors and patients. Here are a few photos of the ACOTCHI-Wuqu’ Kawoq 2008 Exposition:

Wuqu'Kawoq-ACOTCHI art show

Wuqu'Kawoq-ACOTCHI art show

Another highlight of our clinic in Comalapa was the distribution of Tiqaq’omaj qi’, a bilingual (Kaqchikel-Spanish) manual on herbal medicine recently co-authored by Peter Rohloff and Magda Sotz Mux. Below is a photo of Peter in a session with the midwives, who were enthusiastic about the book not only as a medical resource, but also as a tool for literacy classes and study of Kaqchikel, as there are few books available in the language:

Midwife training classes with our new book

After two days in Comalapa, we headed to Santiago, where thanks primarily to the efforts of Wicha, our Santiago field manager, we managed to see several diabetic and elderly patients and made house calls.

The next day, we headed to Tecpán for another clinic managed by ACOTCHI and another midwife training class. As in Comalapa and Santiago, we were able to check up on several of our previous diabetic patients. And as always, working in the clinic was a great learning opportunity for us interns. One of us would sit down with a patient to collect an initial medical history and gather preliminary information, such as blood pressure, pulse, and blood sugar levels. Afterwards, we would accompany the patient into a consultation with Peter, where we learned of the diagnosis and treatment. However, we did not only learn about medical cause-and-effect. The entire clinic was a reminder of the importance of providing medical care in patients’ first languages. While we interns were able to collect medical histories in Spanish, we often observed patients opening up and talking more comfortably and freely about their ailments in Kaqchikel with Peter. In several instances, patients added several important details about their medical problems in the exam room in Kaqchikel.

As in Comalapa, the Tecpán midwives received Tiqaq’omaj qi’ with enthusiasm and had a lively question-and-answer session about various plant uses. The session made it clear that midwives’ roles as community health providers are not restricted to pregnancy and childbirth alone, as the discussion included a great deal of information about diabetic care, recognizing and treating anemia, and both allopathic and herbal treatments of parasitic infections in children and adults.

After six straight days of clinics, we returned to Antigua for a day of planning, logistics, and welcoming the medical team of Peter’s colleagues from Children’s Hospital. And then we set out before dawn on Thursday morning, armed with coffee, to make the drastic climatic transition from the cold highlands to the sweltering lowland sauna of Socorro.

After several weeks of preparation—from leading town meetings to delivering appointment slips and fecal exam bottles—the clinic in Socorro finally arrived. With the help of Meera Boghani, a nutritionist from Children’s Hospital in Boston, Dr. Enid Martinez, a pediatrician also from Children’s, and Jose Pagan, a good-natured immunologist with a knack for weighing children, we managed to pull off a very successful four-day clinic focused on improving the health and nutrition of the women and children of Socorro.

Before delving into the details, here is a glimpse of the Socorro clinic in numbers:

• Approximately 95% of the women showed up for their appointments with all of their children in tow—190 of the 205 total children under 14 passed through our clinic
• We received fecal samples from 142 of the 205 children of Socorro, performed seemingly non-stop fecal exams, and have treated all those with parasitic infections
• All of the most at-risk children for malnutrition, approximately 75 in total, received thorough pediatric check-ups
• All pregnant women of Socorro came in for prenatal exams
• We delivered vitamins to all children, pregnant women, and breast-feeding mothers, including iron supplements to those with anemia
• A toothbrush and tube of toothpaste were given to each child as the beginning of our dental hygiene campaign
• During our four days of work—generally lasting from 8 am until 4 pm each day—we managed to see a grand total of about 300 patients

To give you an idea of the clinic set-up, here is an overview of what a Socorro mother and her children encountered when arriving at the clinic:

First, all children were handed over to Jose and Ruben (a youth from the community) to be weighed, measured, photographed, and given a toothbrush, toothpaste, and their monthly supply of vitamins.

Jose and Ruben

After their heights and weights were plotted on growth curves, the most at-risk children moved on to have individual appointments with Enid and Peter to assess their overall health. During these appointments, Meera stepped in to provide her expert nutritional advice, discussing current eating habits with mothers and determining the most effective food supplementation plan to be implemented in the weeks following the clinic.

Peter seeing patients

Enid and Meera discuss patients

Meanwhile, we interns managed the ever-growing crowd of patients and collected poop samples from incoming mothers. Throughout the day, we conducted fecal exam after fecal exam with our trusty microscope, allowing us to provide mothers with the results and necessary dewormers as soon as possible.

Anita performing fecal exams

Throughout the clinic, we were also assisted greatly by Magda and Paulino, who tirelessly ran errands to buy everything from slide covers to food supplements and tracked down countless patients to deliver medicines and exam results.

Sarah and Mada discuss patients

Paulino

We also are deeply grateful for the help of Maria and her family, who allowed us to invade their house for four days, setting up exam rooms and a makeshift pharmacy in almost every room.

The whole team together

Overall, we are extremely happy with the results of the clinic and want to send out a big thank you to everyone who was involved!

Wuqu' Kawoq receives continued funding for midwife project

11/17/08, 10:14 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Wuqu' Kawoq has just received word from the Conservation, Food, and Health Foundation that our grant "Training of Indigenous Kaqchikel-speaking Midwives" has been funded for a second year. This training grant is a collaboration with ACOTCHI, one of our major community partners.

The grant is a major expansion of the 2008 program. In additional to offering continuing education for currently practicing midwives, the program in 2009 will establish a pilot midwifery school for young women seeking to begin in the profession. This new pilot training school is an important part of our larger mission to revitalize the indigenous medical professions and enhance transmission of knowledge to younger generations.

Here is a longer quotation from the grant application we wrote which highlights why this is such an important program:

For some decades now, anthropologists, development workers, and medical professionals have been predicting and lamenting the demise of the indigenous midwifery tradition in Guatemala on the basis of three observations. (1) Midwives have no mechanism for self-organization or self-regulation. (2) Most midwives are elderly and do not pass on their knowledge to the younger generation. (3) High rates of illiteracy among midwives impede progress. Based on these predictive metrics, the Wuqu’ Kawoq/ACOTCHI collaboration has demonstrated great success and is poised for continued growth.

First, the ACOTCHI model has effectively demonstrated that midwives in San Juan Comalapa and Tecpán actively seek out professional education and improvement activities. ACOTCHI has broad-based community support and provides valuable community services, as evidenced by clinic attendance statistics which increased from 2,150 to more than 3,000 patients in 2008. The midwives of the cooperative provide direct prenatal and birthing services to over 2,000 women and children, and another 700 persons, mostly family of the affiliate midwives, benefit indirectly through the professional advancement afforded by membership in the cooperative. The cooperative is entirely self-regulated, and the training program is administered independently with minimal support from Wuqu’ Kawoq. In 2008, ACOTCHI successful prosecuted several human rights cases involving discrimination against midwives, thereby demonstrating its ability to act as a professional body at the regional and national level.

Second, the incredible growth and success of the project has attracted the interest of many young women who are interested in becoming midwives. The numbers of those who are interested is such that we have been unable to accommodate all to date. In other words, the ACOTCHI model has renewed interest once again among indigenous youth in the art of midwifery, thereby disproving the prediction that midwifery is about to die out with the current generation of elders. The project is directly contributing to the sustainability of this precious and ancient community health resource.

Updates from Socorro

10/23/08, 4:00 pm, posted by Anita Chary

The last two weeks have been very busy for us! As I write this update, I am surrounded by child growth charts, on which Sarah is plotting the data we have gathered over the past few months to monitor growth and malnutrition among children in Socorro.

Vitamin Program in Socorro

After returning to Guatemala with several heavy suitcases of medicines and vitamins, we interns became a walking house-to-house vitamin delivery service. In about three days, we were able to distribute the month’s supply of vitamins to all of the children and pregnant women of Socorro. Our visits also gave us a chance to check in on children’s health problems. There have been several new cases of diarrhea and skin infections in the past few weeks. We have been able to address some of these problems through performing fecal exams and sending pictures to Peter; many of these children will be seen in our November clinic.

Water Project

Yesterday, we worked with our community collaborator, Paulino Calva, to obtain water samples from the river that will be our source for the water purification project. We then sped off-- as fast as we could on a bus--to Guatemala City, where we submitted the samples for microbiological and chemical tests. As we await the results, we are looking forward to a visit from a member of the team of Engineers Without Borders from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in late November. At this time, we hope to assess and buy land near the river as our purification site.

Sarah holding water sample bottles

Preparations for November Clinic

We are excited to be in the midst of planning out the November clinics, when a team of doctors will be visiting for several days. Health centers in Guatemala typically do not follow an appointment system and patients often end up waiting for several hours (or even days) to see a healthcare provider. Thus, many of our patients in Socorro are glad to hear that we will be giving out appointments with fixed times and dates. In the clinic, we will focus on seeing children with severe cases of malnutrition and on seeing pregnant women. It will also be the site of our next vitamin distribution, and we hope to provide families with the donations of toothbrushes and toothpastes we received from the dentists of McHenry County of Illinois, from the University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry, and from the organization Plak Smacker in the United States.

Getting to Know the Community

As we are new to the area of Socorro, it has been our pleasure to get to know individuals in the community. We have been working very closely with two families in Socorro who have allowed us to use their houses for community meetings and clinics, and last weekend we had the opportunity to attend a family birthday party.

Ana Manuela, the birthday girl and her younger brother, Cristian.

Paulino Calva, our primary collaborator, with his children, nieces, nephews, and granddaughter.

Book released

10/12/08, 4:50 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

We are proud to announce the release of Tiqaq'omaj qi', our first of hopefully many Mayan language texts. Tiqaq'omaj qi' is a community health resource, mostly dealing with the proper use of herbal medicines, written in Kaqchikel and Spanish. You can read more and/or purchase a copy here.

Photos from recent trip

8/26/08, 9:30 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Santiago Sacatepéquez

8/24/08, 9:54 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

I am writing this update from on airplane flying somewhere over the gulf of Mexico on my way home to Boston. Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the entire day in Santiago, along with board member Robert Henderson and our two interns Sarah Messmer and Anita Chary.

The purposes of this trip were multiple: (1) Move forward discussions on the acquisition of property. Talks with the owner of the building we are attempting to purchase have gone well. Unfortunately, the legal proceedings to acquire a property in an indigenous town like Santiago, where most properties are not truly deeded, are quite complex. We met with community members to select a lawyer and determine how to proceed. Things are going well, although we suspect that we will not finally close the deal for another 6-8 months or more. In the meantime, we have located a smaller vacant property and the owner is willing to rent it to us at a very reasonable rate. We will be moving into this space in the next month or so. Pictures will follow. (2) See patients, as always! (3) Pay our "tojik." In Maya cosmology the concept of "toj"--debt, responsibility, payment, duty-- is extremely important. Remembering where one comes from and considering where one is going is a critical action that must be performed at regular intervals. The proper way to do this is by participating in a type of ceremony called a kotz'i'j ("flower") or xuk'ulen ("kneeling"). We have been unable to perform one of these ceremonies for some months, as our friend and collaborator Roberta, who is an ajq'ij ("keeper of the days"), had been gravely ill. It was a great pleasure, therefore, to see her well and to reunite for a special ceremony in which the names of all of our patients were read aloud over the fire by Wicha, our Santiago field manager. Photos of this occasion will follow soon!

.

August newsletter available

7/20/08, 9:54 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Download it here

Introducing the 2008-2009 interns

7/20/08, 9:54 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Hello! My name is Sarah Messmer and I am an intern with Wuqu' Kawoq. I recently graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in Engineering Physics and am planning to study medicine in the fall of 2009. I first got involved with Wuqu' Kawoq when I came to Guatemala as an undergraduate during the winter of 2006 to work with Dr. Rohloff. During that trip, I learned a great deal about resource-poor medical work, linguistics, and the injustices suffered by the Mayans. I am very interested in the mission of Wuqu' Kawoq and the intersection of culture and medicine--particularly the importance of working in the language of the people. After graduating, I decided to come back to Guatemala to continue my work with Wuqu' Kawoq for one year. Anita Chary and I will be working in Socorro and Chocola on a child malnutrition program, water purification project, and other community health development projects. We are very excited to be back in Guatemala, especially because we will be learning K'ichee'! Beyond my interests in health and languages, I am also interested in sustainable agriculture--therefore, Chocola is a great place for me because of the current community agriculture development projects that are going on. I hope to learn more about these projects during my time in Chocola, particularly their impact on the health and well-being of the community. I am very excited to work with Wuqu' Kawoq and hope to continue learning from and working with this organization in the future.

Hello! My name is Anita Chary and I recently graduated from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign as a chemistry and anthropology major. A few years ago over winter break, I had the chance to volunteer in medical clinics in Guatemala with Dr. Rohloff. Afterwards, I wrote my senior thesis in anthropology about Mayan midwifery and healthcare in the highlands. Both experiences exposed me to the high levels of medical need among Mayans and showed me how important it is to respect culture and language in providing healthcare. For years, I had known that I wanted to participate in a service project before entering graduate school, and volunteering with Wuqu' Kawoq seems like the perfect fit. I am very excited to be working on the forefront of social justice and advocacy for indigenous rights. Over the next year, Sarah Messmer and I will be learning K'ichee' and working together on a child malnutrition project in Socorro, Suchitepéquez. We will be writing a blog about our experiences (available at matyox.blogspot.com) and plan to create short films about indigenous experiences of healthcare. As I am currently applying to medical school, I hope that this internship marks the beginning of my long-term involvement with Wuqu' Kawoq.

May-June updates

6/03/08, 9:45 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

I am sitting in La Aurora airport in Guatemala City writing this update. Flights have been cancelled due to a number of hurricane-related rains squalls, so I have some time to kill. I am just finishing up a short 5 day trip that we put together mostly for administrative purposes (meaning lots of meetings, all weekend long).

ACOTCHI. On Friday I went to Comalapa to meet with the ACOTCHI board of directors, as we are trying to put together our common plan for the coming year or two. A major focus of the next few months will be securing continued funding for the training classes in 2009, which we feel fairly confident that we will be able to do, as our data are compelling. Additionally, however, we are really interesting in getting the concept of a midwifery "school" off the ground, as we have a large cohort of brand-new midwives, many of whom have not yet attended deliveries independently. I will probably be shopping this idea around to some funders in the next few months as well. Also in collaboration with ACOTCHI, we have managed to secure an excellent source of low-cost, high-quality medications in Guatemala. This is a major step forward, because it will allow us to avoid the headache of hand-carrying drugs, as well as putting this aspect of our programs more squarely in the hands of our local staff, which is where it belongs.

It remains as always extraordinarily stimulating to be able to hang out with the ACOTCHI folks. It is quite common in anthropology and other circles in Guatemala to bemoan the demise of the traditional health provider. The evidence used to predict this sad fate is three-fold: (1) Midwives are all old and do not pass on their knowledge to the next generation; (2) Midwives have no mechanism for self-organization or self-regulation; (3) High rates of illiteracy keep midwives from moving forward on the national stage. On the contrary, in our work with ACOTCHI, more than 25% of our affiliates are young women just beginning to learn the trade, the organization itself is strongly self-regulated and making good first steps toward sustainability, and many of our illiterate midwives are enthusiastically attending literacy classes.

Pa K'in. On Saturday, we had a clinic in Santiago. This included a brief review of the diabetic patients, but most of our time was devoted to a number of interesting new cases and complicated old ones. A few of these cases illustrate the larger problems of lack of access to care that we continue to try to address in our work. For example, we have one young woman, about 20 years old, who has had one leg amputated. She has a genetic nerve disorder which led to the development of a foot ulcer. Because she had no money to pay for antibiotics, this ulcer got so large that she had to have the leg amputated when she was about 16 years old. She came to us just a few months ago, because she was starting to develop an infected ulcer on the other foot and was afraid she was going to lose it as well. We were able to successfully treat the infection, as well as make some wound care suggestions. The ulcer is nicely healed at this point.

Another case is a young man who suffers from incapacitating agoraphobia and panic attacks. As a result of this condition, he has been unable to work for almost 10 years and, in fact, never leaves his bedroom. The fact that he does not work places considerable financial strain on his family, and his wife also is at her wits' end. He has had no effective treatment, mostly because there is no access to psychiatrists nor to basic psychotropic medications in Guatemala. For those well-connected few who do manage to find a psychiatrist who will see them, they quickly find that the requisite medications are among the most expensive they have ever had to purchase. For example, a generic antidepressant in Guatemala can easily cost the equivalent of two weeks' salary every month. Our treatment goal for this unfortunate man will be to find a steady source of affordable medications in the United States and get him hooked up as quickly as possible.

In other exciting news, it looks like we are approaching an agreement with the owner of a property in Santiago that we are attempting to purchase. This property is quite large, and would allow us to expand our services in a number of importants ways, including stocking a larger pharmacy, setting up a diagnostic laboratory, and have community space for health training classes. We will keep you informed of developments.

On "Alternative Medicine." Recently a friend of ours from Santiago went to see a chiropractor in Guatemala City. This was apparently after seeing an ad for relief of back pain. She describes the strangeness of the experience, especially of having someone pull on her neck, which she feels probably made things worse. Also, she called me after this appointment to ask my advice; the chiropractor had told her that she had back pain because her back molars where compressing her jaw and neck and, therefore, she had to get them pulled. This concerned her greatly, and she did not understand why she had to get her perfectly good teeth pulled.

What this shows is the number of cultural barriers presented to her by such a foreign medical practice. In particular for me it highlights what I perceive as a big problem in the area of current talk about traditional indigenous medicinal practices. Namely, "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) has become quite fashionable on the international scene, and this is tending to get rolled up with talk about traditional indigenous medicine, as if they were the same thing. Just to give one example, right now there is a good bit of funding available to teach acupuncture to Maya. There is no discussion at all about whether or not this is a helpful or useful thing to do. Rather, it is assumed that because they are "into" their own traditional medical practices they will also be "into" acupuncture.

The point here is not whether or acupuncture is helpful or not, but rather that we want to resist the tendency to conflate indigenous medical wisdom with all the various things that go under the fashionable heading of "complementary and alternative medicine". Although there certainly are similarities between CAM and indigenous medical practices, to assume that they are natural blood relatives without any sort of questioning is irresponsible, and also another example of telling indigenous people who they are and what they should do. CAM springs out of the luxury of postindustrial society, where we have now in our time of long and healthy lives seen fit to question and deconstruct the assumptions of our dominant medical culture. But for Maya, who have life expectancies more than 20 years less than us and incomes a fraction of ours, traditional medicines are neither alternative nor complementary, they are just what there is available at hand, at relatively low cost. Nor do they engage in the use of traditional remedies out of a sort of critique of Occidental instrumentalism, as we do with CAM. As our own research and that of others also has shown, they will use any and all remedies, including the most invasive, chemicalized ones, if they can afford them, if they trust the referring provider, and if they think there is a chance it will keep them alive. This is a dynamic of need, and one of poverty, and that is why we cannot conflate it with CAM.

Advisory Board. On Sunday, we had our first reunion of the Wuqu' Kawoq advisory board, which has representatives from each of the various towns we work in. Many of the members of the board work directly for Wuqu' Kawoq, but others are from ACOTCHI, or are affiliated with other NGOs. The purpose of this board is to guide Wuqu' Kawoq's programs and also to serve as a forum for folks from across the region to get to know the resources available and problems confronted in the various places we work. This is a tremendously productive activity, and one which all the participants enjoy. The people we work with have many experiences and insights that they are anxious to share with others. Just to give one example, a large portion of the discussion on Sunday had to do with the possibility of expanding ACOTCHI's midwife organizing work into all the other represented towns. We plan to have meets of the board every few months, both to keep all members informed about projects that they are not involved with day-to-day and also to maintain a forum for problem-solving, critical thinking, and planning for the future.

Socorro. Finally, on Monday we were in Socorro for the usual clinic but also and more importantly for a brief community meeting to bring folks up to speed on the water project, as well as on the child health work that Anita and Sarah will be doing there starting in July. It has been raining nonstop for 5 days, and the sound of rain beating on sheet metal roofs makes it almost impossible to hold a meeting without shouting, but all in attendance were content to be there. What's more, we prefer the rain to the scorching heat.

Grant-writing season is upon us

5/16/08, 9:31 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

We apologize for the lack of a regular update in some time, but we have been very busy arranging plans for summer projects and also submitting all of the grant applications, which seem to all come due in late June and early July.

We were in Guatemala at the end of April for the usual round of adminstrative visits and also medical consultations. We saw about 200 patients, a rather light load actually, in the usual venues, including subspecialty consultations in pediatrics and gynecology with ACOTCHI, house calls to diabetics and bed-ridden elderly in Pa K'in, and child malnutrition visits in Socorro.Medically-speaking, there have been several gratifying experiences lately. The first has been our increasing success at making referral connections up to tertiary centers in Guatemala City. It has taken a long time to begin to develop this network, but it is nice to see it working. In one case, we had a woman pregnant with twins who had severe preeclampsia; we were able to participate in arranging transfer to a competent center where she delivered by cesarean and, after a three week hospital stay due to prematurity, her and the two identical twin boys were discharged in good health. In a second case, we encountered an 11 year old girl with severe kidney failure who were able to transfer to a specialist; she is doing much better after a brief hospital stay and is getting good followup.

Due mostly to the hard work of Wicha, our Pa K'in coordinator, we have begun to implement insulin therapy with our most severe diabetics, and the results and general compliance and satisfaction are excellent. Insulin therapy has been up to now a very frustrating experience for us, as the networks for ensuring follow-up and monitoring have not been in place. However, our health promoters are now very well-trained, and they are doing an excellent job.

The Engineers without Borders group that is collaborating with us on the potable water project in Socorro has released their final report and project recommendations. We can now see our way clear to a water systems solution, probably by early 2009, as long as we can get all the funding to fall into place. This project is essential to the health and well-being of this extremely impoverished village, where nearly all the residents suffer from chronic diarrhea and other consequences of unsafe water and where more than 50% of the children have growth stunting.

Very soon, you will become acquainted with the two newest additions to our staff. Sarah Messmer and Anita Chary will be Wuqu' Kawoq interns starting in July 2008. They will be primarily responsible for administering child health programming on the coast, as well as more broadly interfacing with all aspects of our work in K'ichee' speaking towns (Socorro, Chocolá, and environs).

Magda in the United States!

4/22/08, 10:47 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

March-April were busy months for some of us, as we were hosting the visit of Magda Sotz Mux, our friend and collaborator from Chiq'a'l, on her first visit to the United States. Wuqu' Kawoq helped to arrange a visiting scholarship for her at the University of Illinois, where she had a chance to give multiple lectures on life in Guatemala, development work, and of course weaving. She also made a side trip to the University of Kansas to visit with textiles and anthropology faculty there, as well as make guest appearances in Kaqchikel language classes.

The academic highlights of the month-long trip included a very well-received panel about language revitalization on the American continent (see promotional materials here) and a textiles exhibit at the Spurlock Museum with associated weaving demonstrations and lectures (more info here and here). These events were made possible through the support and collaboration of our friends in the Spurlock Museum and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of Illinois and the Department of Anthropology and Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Kansas.

In addition to Magda's academic activities during the month, she also had many opportunities to fundraise both formally and informally for Wuqu' Kawoq and, as a result, we have had a successful fundraising month!

I have including a few pictures from some of the weaving events at the University of Illinois, and videos of this and other elements of Magda's stay in the United States can be viewed on our YouTube site.

Magda weaving in the museum/credit S. Steiner


More weaving/credit S. Steiner


Setting up the loom/credit S. Steinger


Magda with Peter at a university function/credit A. Brandon

Midwife training

3/28/08, 9:46 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Several of us had the opportunity to be together working in Guatemala in the weeks leading up to Semana Santa. This included the usual suspects such as myself and Anne Kraemer, but we also had a return visit from Pat O'Brien from the Sylvan Lake Rotary Club, who is helping us to pursue some infrastructure solutions in Pa K'in. Part of this has involved looking at properties and engaging in fierce price negotiations. This is not the most enjoyable part of our job, but it is very nice to see how excited community members are at the prospect of having "our own" space.

For my own part, I was in country for just over three weeks, and I had the opportunity not only run the usual clinics (two in Socorro, two in Tecpán, two in Chiq'al, two in Pa K'in), but also to just some business done - community meetings, strategizing with the ACOTCHI board of directors, meeting with physicians and other interested parties. The highlight was being able to spend one day hanging out in midwife training without any duties other than picture taking. Some of these are included here.

Erika teaching the class


Following along in the Libros para Parteras text


Lots of joking


Role-playing patients interviews

It is high summer in Guatemala right now, which means hot days and cold nights. In Chiq'al and other highland towns, the bean crop is in flower, as can be seen here in these pictures taken outside the front door of the home of our friend and colleague Magda.

March Newsletter

2/21/08, 9:37 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Our March 2008 newsletter can be downloaded here

Another trip to Guatemala, video work, and more

2/6/08, 4:34 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

We had another very successful whirlwind trip Jan 27-Feb 2.

Arriving on Sunday was pleasant, as I had not actually scheduled any work for that day, so it was much more relaxing than last time. It was also very exciting to be able to follow up on the patients who we sent to the COTA jornada in Tiquisate Jan 19. COTA is a very impressive surgery NGO that makes one mammoth trip to Guatemala every year to do hundreds of surgeries. We have established a good relationship with them, and they were kind enough to see several of our referrals during their trip. Additionally they donated hundreds of dollars worth of insulin and pediatric formulation lasix and digoxin. These are desperately needed, as we have several children with diabetes and others with congenital heart conditions.

On Monday, we were in Santiago to see the usual array of diabetics and other long-standing patients. We also had extra time to see several new patients. The most tragic of these was a young woman, perhaps 35 years old, with a massive, ulcerated parotid gland tumor perhaps 25 cm in diameter. She has been lying in bed for months as the tumor grew and grew and now can no longer eat solid foods. Apparently she did have an evaluation at INCAN, the national cancer institute, and had a CT scan and MRI, both of which she showed to us. No further interventions were performed, however, and it is unclear whether this is because the physicians told her the tumor was inoperable or because the amount of money required was beyond her reach.

Tuesday Anne Kraemer and I were in Socorro, where we saw a very large number of patients, about 80 I think, as well as got some general business done regarding the water project. Wednesday we had a site visit from Heart to Heart International in Santiago to show off mostly some of our work with diabetics there. Thursday and Friday I was in Comalapa and Tecpán, respectively, working with the midwifes in part doing follow-up for some of the patients that we saw at the beginning of January and in part seeing new patients as well. We saw about 30 patients in each location, and we also got a good deal of business done, as Anne and I had a long meeting with the board of directors for ACOTCHI.

On Saturday, I flew to Austin, where I spent two days working on various media projects with Laura Welch, our trustworthy media expert. One of the results of this was the new video spot which you can see embedded on this webpage or by going here . We also developed some new ideas for website architecture, which you should see unfolding over the coming weeks, and also worked on some of the other video projects which we have in the works.

More photographs

1/22/08, 6:33 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Some excellent photographs, courtesy of Catherine Szalkowski.

Photographs and feedback

1/21/08, 10:42 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

We continue to receive positive feedback from our recent trip from both our on-site partners and our United States-based participants. Dr Malcolm Hill, our pediatrician, writes:

I am honored to have had the opportunity to work with Cat, Emily, Hannah , Melinda , Kevin , Olga,Pat and Peter. We functioned well together and were a very effiecient MASH unit. I also want to thank the ACOTCHI midwives for their wonderful hospitality ... especially the incredible meals that they provided. I look forward to working with everyone in the future.

He also sends along the following pictures:

Finally, Catherine Szalkowski, the photojournalist who accompanied us on the most recent trip, is working through her images. We expect many more later, but for now you can visit her blog here to see a few samples.

Trip updates!

1/15/08, 6:35 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

On Saturday, January 5, numerous friends and partners converged on La Antigua, Guatemala, including members of the UIUC Engineers without Borders, physicians from the Carle Clinic Association, and members of the Sylvan Lake Rotary Club. The purposes for this meeting were numerous, but included exploration of partnership opportunities with the Rotary; kickoff of the engineering component of our water and sanitation project in Socorro, San Pablo Jocopilas; and running of a subspecialty clinic in collaboration with our midwifery partner ACOTCHI.

I cannot speak at this point to the specifics of how all of these various activities unfolded over the week, as we are yet to have time to regroup and debrief. Consequently, I will just write briefly about the medicine side of things, as that is the part that I was specifically in charge of. Other components of the trip were run by other board members, and we will await blog postings from them. Also forthcoming will be a number of pictures, as we had the good fortune of having on board a professional photojournalist for the trip.

On Saturday evening, we took a trip to Pa K'in for an inaugural ceremony with our friend who is an ajq'ij (Maya spiritual guide) Roberta. We are in the habit of having a large ceremony on January 1st of every year, which is usually highly anticipated by the community, but scheduling problems kept us out of the country until January 5.

On Sunday, January 6, the physicans took a field trip to see our projects in Pa K'in. The purpose of their visit was to provide critique and perspective, and to help us prioritize how to grow this project in the most efficient way possible. Their feedback on essential medications, patient management, and other logistical issues will be most valuable over the coming months.

After this short day, we took a bus to Chiq'a'l Sunday evening in preparation for the real heart of the week, which was subspecialty work (pediatrics and gynecology) in Tecpán and Chiq'a'l with ACOTCHI. We saw patients for three days in Chiq'a'l and two days in Tecpán, entirely in Kaqchikel, with myself and Emily Tummons translating for our pediatrican Mike Hill and our gynecologist Melinda Dabrowski. Although we have been working with ACOTCHI for some time, this has previously been mostly in the realm of training and capacity-building. This was our first of what will become ongoing attempts to provide regular specialist contact for their patients, and it went very well. The pace was slow and leisurely, with much laughing and fun, and we provided a wide range of free medications and diagnostic services in addition to consults.

Two half-days during the week, one in Tecpán and one in Chiq'a'l, were also dedicated to midwife training. As part of our grant from the Conservation, Food, and Health Foundation, we are trying to foster regular training connections between North American medical specialists and the midwifes. In part these connections are designed to show the healthy, collegial ways in which physicans can interact with midwives--something that is sorely lacking in Guatemala. Additionally, as these sessions are all conducted in Kaqchikel, they are designed to introduce midwives to some themes in maternal and child health in a way that is comprehensible to them--most training sessions in Guatemala are conducted in Spanish and, as a result, much is lost on the participants. The training themes for this week included neonatal resuscitation and postpartum hemorrhage.

The latter theme of hemorrhage also served as a kick-off for another of our midwifery collaborative projects, which is the introduction of misoprostol (kindly donated by US organizations) into home-based midwifery practices, as a way to reduce the in-home maternal mortality rates.

The week concluded on a high-note in Tecpán with a field-trip and formal exchange of thanks and gifts at Iximche', the ruins of the Kaqchikel empire.

Newsletter available

12/26/2007, 1:15 pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Greetings in the new year! Our first newsletter has just been published and mail to all current donors and supporters. If you have not received your copy, just send us an email to let us know! Alternatively, it can be downloaded here. Stay tuned for other updates soon, as we have a number of engineering and medical trips scheduled for the first several weeks of January.

Wuqu' Kawoq receives notification of grant funding

12/08/2007, 10:17 am, posted by Peter Rohloff

Wuqu' Kawoq has just received word that its grant application entitled Training of indigenous Kaqchikel-speaking midwives in Guatemala has just been funded at a level of nearly $10,000 by the Conservation, Food, and Health Foundation. This grant will provides support for our training programs in San Juan Comalapa and Tecpán working with the Associación de Comadronas Tradicionales de Chimaltenango. This training program is unique in two ways: First, all training is conducted in the native language, Kaqchikel, of the participants themselves. Second, an integrated and sophisticated data collection and evaluative component is built into the program. We thank the CFH foundation for its support, which will go a long way toward developing culturally appropriate, community-based health education efforts in the region.

Thanksgiving Dash

12/02/2007, 02:01pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

I was in Guatemala for a lightning trip over Thanksgiving, November 22-25. There was a lot of work to be done.

I was picked up at 6 am as I arrived in the airport by Ernesto, whom Anne and I feel is perhaps Guatemala's best driver-for-hire. We went straight to the San Antonio Suchitepéquez-Chocolá region, where we spent the day seeing patients in our Socorro project. As we are now entering the summer, we were able to work all day without dashing around avoiding the rain. I took advantage of having a vehicle and driver to visit some friends and collaborators from some of San Antonio's eastern aldeas, which are Kaqchikel speaking. We were not able to do this without providing some medical care of course, but it was mostly just sitting around, talking about life and plans for future collaborations. I immensely enjoy San Antonio's Kaqchikel dialect, which has taken on something of the neighboring K'iche's crisp delivery while still remaining pure Kaqchikel.

Also in Socorro, we held a community meeting to finalize plans for the visit from the Engineer without Borders group (University of Illinois chapter), who will be down in January to make a preliminary site assessment for a drinking water system. After finishing up in Socorro, we ran up the hill to Chocolá, where Anne (our board member currently living in Chocolá) had arranged for us to see a few patients as well. We do not have a project in Chocolá strictly speaking, but we have been asked to provide advisement and oversight for a medical project being developed by one of our collaborating NGO partners, Semillas Para El Futuro. Consequently, I have been spending some time there when able, trying to get to know midwifes and other community leaders.

One of the most difficult cases we saw this day was a young boy with type I diabetes. This is an extraordinarily difficult thing to take care of in Guatemala, as access to blood-testing equipment, insulin, and the like is limited and these supplies, even if available, are very expensive. The mother is currently spending about 14,000 Q yearly on medicines, which is a huge amount. We will try to help her simplify and optimize his medication regimen and will arrange an appointment with our pediatrician in January.

We spent the night with Anne, and were up at 4:30 am Friday morning in order to make it over to Comalapa before 9 am. In Comalapa, we gave a half-day training session to the assembled midwives which was a continuation of the sessions we gave in October. In the afternoon we had a planning meeting with their Board of Directors, Magda (our Comalapa field manager), and myself to plan the clinic week in January. We also finalized arrangements for our maternal-child health survey, which Magda will begin working on this month. Friday night I was back to Antigua for a dinner meeting with Earl and Susanne, board members from Semillas Para El Futuro to discuss our collaborative efforts in the Chocolá region.

Saturday, the final working day of the trip, saw us in Santiago, where we saw mostly established patients and reviewed the diabetes management program with Wicha, our field manager who is running this project. Most of our diabetics are doing very well and feeling great. There are a few however, who have not been taking their medicine nor watching their diet very well. This is, in part, why we have brought Wicha on board, to keep an eye on them, and she is doing an excellent job. Already a few patients who were previously not very adherent to their regimens are showing marked improvements, because of the weekly visits she makes to check in on them.

Sunday I flew back to Chicago. When I landed, the immigration agent remarked, referring to my passport, "Looks like you've got a few miles on this thing!" Which is the truth.

Peter's trip October 2007

11/04/2007, 04:50pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

October was a busy month for me. I was in Guatemala the week of October 14th.

Part of this trip was spent in Pa K'in, where we were attempting to iron out the bugs in our diabetes program. Wicha is now in charge of this, and she is doing a great job. Every diabetic in the program is receiving weekly visits now, to reinforce the need to continue taking medicines regularly and to check blood sugars. One of the greatest challenges to diabetic programs anywhere in the world, not just Guatemala, is that people stopping taking medicines or adhering to their diet when they start feeling better. Wicha is in charge of making sure this does not happen.

We had an emotional encounter with one family. The matriarch of this family has advanced Parkinson's and she has been progressively declining. In the space between this and our last visit, she has taken to bed and is refusing food and drink and drifting in and out of consciousness. The family was tearful and effusively thankful for "all that we had done" for their mother. Actually, we have done nothing for her medically; we have simply tried to be a supportive presence.

Another part of the trip was spent in Chiq'a'l with Ixkamey's family. Part of this trip was personal, since I am very close to her family and enjoy spending time with them. Ixkamey and I talked a lot of business too, since she is heading up all of our census and survey work in Chiq'a'l and elsewhere. We are working through the bugs of two large survey projects we are planning for this winter.

I spent one day in the Socorro down on the Bocacosta. We have an exciting potable water project in the works there. The University of Illinois Engineers Without Borders will be doing the system design and implementation, and Wuqu' Kawoq will be providing the community connection and doing the fundraising. Most of the day was spent with friend and colleagues from the village laying the groundwork for this.

Finally, I spent two days teaching midwives about the safe and effective use of herbal medicines. One day was spent in Iximché (Tecpan) and the other in Chiq'a'l. Both groups of midwives were very engaged and very smart, and the sessions were so successful that we have a second round scheduled for November (Thanksgiving). I hope to have some pictures of these classes up soon. We also delivered 50 copies of the Hesperian Foundation manual to the midwives during these sessions.

September updates

9/07/2007, 02:30pm, posted by Peter Rohloff

Collaboration with midwives

Our relationship with the ACOTCHI cooperative in Comalapa continues to evolve. We have recently built a a new ACOTCHI website, which you can see in its nearly-completed form at the link above in our menu bar.

Recently we purchased 50 copies of the Hesperian Foundation's Book for Midwives, which will be given free of charge to the ACOTCHI members. This represents half of our goal of 100 copies this year. Feel free to donate specifically to this at the 'help' tab above if you would like to see us meet this goal this year!

Recently, we also purchased equipment for ACOTCHI for the measurement of blood glucose and urine analysis, two very important items in any high-quality program of prenatal care. Just this last week we donated a high-quality microscope, which will permit them to perform more essential blood, urine, and fecal tests, such as for parasites and other infections.

New focus in Santiago

At the August board meeting, the future and direction of the work in Santiago was discussed, and the decision was made to exert effort to expand primarily in the direction of diabetes-related care, with a strong focus on community education classes and the training of local health promoters. Currently, the roster of regular patients is 150, of whom 57 are handicapped or very elderly and therefore visited in the home. We have 16 diabetic patients who are all received regular home visits, nutritional education, glucose testing, and financial support for medication purchasing. We would like to expand this number to over 50 patients this year, but your help is needed to make this happen!

In other exciting news, this week we hired our first official local employee, who will be overseeing the diabetes program as it grows, performing all the glucose testing, education, and intake of new patients as this program grows.

Clean water

Peter Rohloff and Anne Kraemer have been working on developing a clean water solution for one of our small partner communities on the Boca Costa. Recent work has including preliminary water quality analysis of several potential natural spring sources, a community-wide census and survey of water source and usage needs, and, most excitingly, a developing partnership with the University of Illinois Engineers Without Borders chapter, which has agreed to take on the project.

Maternal-Child Health Census

Wuqu' Kawoq has just taken on a major new project in Comalapa and Tecpan. In partnership with ACOTCHI, we will be performing a large ethnographic study designed to assess current midwifery practices and diagnoses major deficiencies in practice. Interviews in dozens of aldeas in both town will be conducted by locally-based collaborators (in Kaqchikel, of course) with both practicing midwives and their patients. This project has a planned start date of November 2007.

Training sessions

Peter Rohloff, our executive director, will be giving a training session in Comalapa on Sept 18 on the identification of parasites in fecal samples. He has two more training sessions scheduled on the safe and effective use of medicinal plants, one in Comalapa on October 16th and the other in Tecpan on October 18th.