Provide Birthing and Surgery Rooms in Guatemala

The new birthing rooms are almost ready for use. The bathrooms for the patients and medical personell are complete, new interior doors have been installed, and the autoclave is up and running (it serves the entire facility, not just this new area). The site also received one new birthing bed from the government. The existing tile floors were chemically and physically cleaned and are functional, but we plan to install new tiles over them to make the rooms more aesthetically appealing and hygienic (larger tiles with fewer grout lines to clean). Additionally, we plan to acquire another birthing bed and move the government-required "traditional birthing" equipment to the new birthing rooms. The first of the birthing rooms will be operational in several weeks. The old birthing room will be converted to additional emergency room space, almost tripling the emergency services capacity. Demo for this will begin in three weeks.

Many thanks for your support of this significant project in Chisec. The director and medical staff send their thanks as well.

We will provide a final update in our next report.

Thanks to many generous donors, we have fully funded this project. In February, the final work should be completed to enable use of the birthing and surgery rooms. We will provide a final report with the "end state" photos in the next report cycle.

The Centro de Salud project is a multi-phase, long-term project. We have already completed the birthing room and surgery suite phase, plus we have remodeled the clinic waiting room with a new dropped ceiling and LED light panels and ceiling fans, and upgraded many of the patient care rooms. We also have remodeled a secondary building into which we hope to move the administration functions this year, further creating space for more patient care rooms. Our next phases will include remodeling the old birthing area into another emergency room space (more than doubling their capacity), completing the administration function move, installing 2 large autoclaves for equipment sterilization, and acquiring equipment for all the new medical spaces. 

Please stay tuned for more updates and some future photos.

Thank you!