Improving health of 500 Guatemalan school children

As I am enjoying the falling colorful leaves and softening light in the northeastern US, my thoughts are focused on the work that is needed to prepare for the team from Mayanza to return to Santiago Atitlan in February.  On the to-do-list is a number of things including selecting, ordering, and packing supplies to provide oral health screening and dental varnish, anemia screening and treatment and a dose of anti-parasite medication to over 500 children in four schools.  We are also making preparations for celebrating the conclusion of our first year of the diabetes lifestyle modification program for women and recruiting another class that will being in February. And in between trips is the time for the important analysis of data collected in the evaluation of our programs to better understand what is working and areas that we can improve.

In addition, we are celebrating being awarded a grant from the PA Foundation in June to expand our anemia prevention and treatment program to the families of the children that we see.  I traveled to Guatemala in October to meet with school administrators and a number of community organizations to solicit feedback on a plan to expand our services in the community.  It was such an important week to connect with our friends and colleagues in Santiago and to create new collaborations.  As a result, we are excited to offer a Family Health Fair in February at each of the four schools we partner with.  We will expand our oral health program, anemia prevention and treatment program focusing on women of childbearning age and young children and provide education about lifestyle modification for prevention of chronic diseases to the families of the children we serve.

Mayanza is an all volunteer organization with 100% of donations directly used to improve the health of the community of Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala.  Our team is comprised of an interprofessional team of physician assistants, nurses, physician assistant, medical, dental and public health students and non-medical volunteers who donate their time and expertise to improving the health of school children in this community.

In a few weeks Giving Tuesday will be upon us.  Please help us to continue our work in Santiago and make a donation on December 3rd - Giving Tuesday!  Without your support, we could not provide this much needed care to this community.

Thank you!  Muchas gracias!  Maltiox!

Mayanza has recently returned from our July trip to Santiago and we have many successes to share with you!  This trip was exciting for a number of reasons: we strengthened partnerships with local stakeholders, collected feedback on our programs from the people that we serve and continued our current interventions in the schools.

We had an amazing team of 14 volunteers who gave their time, money and endless energies to our project.  We made an impact on this community that touched each of our team members in ways that they will carry with them in the future.

The team saw ~500 children on this trip and have seen a significant improvement in the level of anemia and dental caries in this community.   Our team also had a number of meetings this week including with teachers from the schools, the community health educator, physical education teacher, and local dentist.  We worked with each of these team members to strengthen our partnerships and commitment to this community.

With support from Soles4Souls and a nccPA Health Foundation grant, we evaluated the Diabetes Lifestyle Modification Program aimed at reducing the devastating effects of diabetes mellitus on the women and families of this community.  We have partnered with a local community health educator, Lola and a physical education teacher, Febe to provide the instruction and support in the areas of goal setting, healthy eating, exercise instruction and stress management for 10 Mayan women at risk for diabetes.  We will return in six months to check their progress toward their personal goals for wellness.

Thank you very much for your support for this project.  We hope that we can continue to count on you to help us provide these services for the children and families of Santiago. 

Please continue supporting our “Little by Little campaign” where your donations will be matched.

Thank you!  Muchas gracias!  Maltiox!

Jami, Emilee and Carla

Happy spring!  Here at Mayanza, we are busy preparing to return to Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala in July.  We are excited to work with the families of the school communitiies of 4 schools that we partner with.  We plan to see approximately 600 children and provide a variety of services to improve the health of these children.

Every six months we return to provide dental screening, fluoride varnish, and anti-worming medications, as well as measuring growth and supporting our health educator, Lola.  Every child that we see gets their very own toothbrush, toothpaste and soap.

In February, we piloted two new programs, Women's Diabetes Lifestyle Modification Program and Oral Health Treatment for the Children of Santiago.  We are looking forward to talking to the participants of these programs for feedback.

Please consider supporting our return trip in July!  Every donation goes directly toward our work in Guatemala and improving the health of the school communities that we serve.

Mayanza has recently returned from a week on the ground in Guatemala and we have many successes to share with you!  This trip was exciting for a number of reasons: we saw the greatest number of children on this trip, we strengthened partnerships with local stakeholders and started a new program for diabetes education.

We had an amazing team of 13 volunteers who gave their time, money and endless energies to our project.  We made an impact on this community that touched each of our team members in ways that they will carry with them in the future.

We saw ~580 children on this trip, which was a 14% increase from last year.  This speaks to the community engagement in our project and the trust given to us by the teachers and parents of this school community.  We are working to crunch numbers to see how our interventions have impacted the community, but see the increased level of engagement as a very positive sign.

Our team had a number of meetings this week including with teachers from the schools, the community health educator, physical education teacher, and local dentist.  We worked with each of these team members to strengthen our partnerships and commitment to this community.

With support from Soles4Souls and a nccPA Health Foundation grant, we implemented a Diabetes Lifestyle Modification Program aimed at reducing the devastating effects of diabetes mellitus on the women and families of this community.  We have partnered with a local community health educator, Lola and a physical education teacher, Febe to provide the instruction and support in the areas of goal setting, healthy eating, exercise instruction and stress management for 12 Mayan women at risk for diabetes.  We took some initial measurements and will return in six months to check their progress toward their personal goals for wellness.

Thank you very much for your support for this project.  We hope that we can continue to count on you to help us provide these services for the children and families of Santiago.  Please look for an email from us in April regarding an upcoming campaign called the “Little by Little campaign” where your donations will be matched.

Thank you!  Muchas gracias!  Maltiox!

Jami, Emilee and Carla

The team at Mayanza is very excited to share our outcomes from our work in 2018.  We will be sending another report in 2019 after our trips in February and July.

The team traveled to Santiago Atitlan Feb 10-17, 2018 and July 28-Aug 4, 2018. For our intervention, each child received a full screening physical exam including measurements of growth and vision screening. In addition, each child had a dental screening examination and fluoride varnish application by a physician assistant, medical or dental student. Then, the school children were each given their very own toothbrush, toothpaste and soap.

Highlights of 2018:

• We have formed a partnership with a Community Health Educator, Lola Ajtujal.  Lola visits the children in each of the schools every week to teach a lesson on a variety fo health topics.
• The team expanded to see many more students in 2018:

                 2016 - we saw 113 students

                 2017 - we saw 300 students

                 2018 - we saw 500 students in both February AND July 

• Each child received a dose of the anti-parasite medication, albendazole twice in 2018.
• The team hand-carried over 100K multivitamins to the four schools so each child would receive a daily vitamin.
• We added a fingerstick hemoglobin station and almost 78% of children screened were willing to have this test. Rates of anemia ranged from 40-47% across the schools which confirmed the need for anti-parasite medication and daily multivitamins.
• We have also partnered with Dr Jose Alejandro, a Guatemalan dentist who has agreed to evaluate and treat the students that we screen in the 4 schools.
• Lastly, we have been successful in receiving two grants to pay for the dental supplies for Dr. Alejandro to treat the students in these schools.

            NCCPA Foundation Kathy J Pederson Grant to Promote Equitable Care - $5,000

            Oral Health Foundation of the Pierre Fauchard Academy - $10,000

We look forward to sharing our results of our current programs and our plan to pilot a new diabetes lifestyle intervention and support group for women when we return in February!

Warm regards,

Jami