Saving Lives - Improving Health in Rural Guatemala

Kids don't attend school when their tooth aches. Without access to dental care and knowledge about dental hygiene, children develoop tooth decay and infection. This affects their ability to sleep, eat and learn. They fall behind and can't concentrate. Children and adults suffer from rotting teeth and lack of dental care. In rural Maya villages there are no dentists.

The reasons for the lack of dental hygiene varies in each village. Some communities don't have running water and families do not have money to buy toothbrushes.  They don't understand why they should brush their teeth. Only a handful of schools have toothbrushes and toothpaste available so the kids can at least brush their teeth once a day at school.  Dental hygeine has been non existent for generations. 

Preventive care is non-existent. Parents do not have the financial resources to take their kids to the dentist, especially since the family size is 4-6 children. Sugar-filled snacks are the norm because they are cheap and readily available. Lack of education is the root of the problem.

I take time with each patient to educate them about dental health and prevention in our clinic. But it's not enough. Our goal is to reach rural villages to educate families, teachers, and students. It's not easy to reach the remote villages. Transportation is plagued by rough roads, huge potholes, and dust so thick you can't see the truck ahead of you. 

In 2016, our dental staff treated 947 patients. In 2017, our goal is to reach 1,500 students living in rural, poverty stricken Maya villages. Relieving pain will keep the kids in school.  Dental hygiene education will help prevent recurrances.

Your help is needed to support our dental outreach program.  For just $50 you can help one student stay in school pain free. 

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Links:

• Visit our website to learn more about our health programs

Do you have to chop wood to cook your child's breakfast? Does your eyes burn and your lungs hurt after cooking dinner?   Are you at the hospital taking care of your daughter who is suffering from burns?  Did you have to ask your 10-year-old son to walk alone in the woods to gather firewood?

Ever think about how women in Guatemala cook meals for their family?  Meet Rosa. She lives in Pacoj, a rural village in San Martin, Jilotepeque. She is 30 years old and cares for her husband and 4 children.  Until last month she cooked over an open fire. In fact, she has been cooking over an open fire since she was 6 years old, when she started helping her mother make tortillas for the family.  The toxic smoke has taken its toll on her health. She suffers from constant headaches, burning eyes, and a chronic cough.  

Hundreds of women in rural Guatemala cook over traditional open fire stoves. Not only do they suffer from chronic health problems, but their children risk severe burns and early childhood deaths.  According to WHO, pneumonia is the leading cause of death in children under the age of 5.  All preventable....

Chapina stoves use 70% less wood than open fire cookstoves and vents deadly fumes outside the kitchen.  Since 2010, we have helped over 3,700 families purchase a Chapina stove. That means over 22,000 people are healthier because they no longer are encased in toxic smoke everyday. The threats of burns and illness are finaly absent from their kitchen. Telma said "With my Chapina stove I feel better,I don't worry about my 1-year-old son next to me, and my mother spends more time with me now in the kitchen."  And, with the savings of 70% of firewood, there is less devastation to nearby forests. 

Keeping kids safe and moms healthy ensures a productive family. Women in Guatemala suffer from many illnesses, lack of education, no means of making an income, lack of resources to provide for their family,  no available medical care, no transportation, and language barriers.  They shouldn't have to suffer from preventable respiratory diseases too. 

Next time you are cooking over your electric stove be grateful and think about the women in Guatemala who are breathing deadly smoke every day.

You can save lives. For only $135 you can buy an efficient, vented Chapina stove for a family so deserving of a healthy kitchen.  

Links:

• See what we do