Therapy Program News: Services in Comitancillo, New location in San Jose Ojotenam and a Therapy Dog

The therapy program has regained all of the momentum lost during the pandemic. New children are arriving to the centers in San Miguel Ixtahuacan and San Jose Ojetenam every week. We continue to support the therapy center of Padre Angel Esposito in Tacana, and his hospital de Los Angelitos. Your support has made it possible to hire a new therapist, Emily Gabriel, who is a native Mam speaker from Comitancillo, a purely indigenous, poor and isolated municipality that borders San Miguel. Emily’s father died when she was 7, and her family has struggled financially, but through great sacrifice and dedication she has attained a five year degree in physical therapy, and will soon begin her thesis. As of now, Emily is working in San Miguel, but at some point she would begin a program in her home town, with the support of MHI.

The center in San Miguel, Bitol has 4  physical therapists with advanced degrees who speak Mam. As such, the center is San Miguel has become a site where universities are sending their students to receive clinical training. MHI supports them with housing and subsidize their meals. They in turn allow us to accept more patients.

In May the therapy center in San Jose Ojotenam, changed location, and moved out of the parroquial building to a larger space in the downtown center.  The center there is name “Juan Pablo II” in honor of the late pope.  The space allows us to continue offering physical, speech, occupational and special education. 

Another exciting news for our therapy program is the addition of a therapy dog, a brown lab called Akira.  She works in the center Bitol in San Miguel Ixtahuacan, and brings lots of joy to the families, particularly the little ones that attend the center.

MHI continues to support the medical needs of the children that attend our therapy program and work with the pediatric heart center in the capital, and the Moore center for specialized orthopedic surgical care services.

A generous donation from Edesia and Global Support and Development NGO (GSD)

Hi to all of the friends of the Mayan Health Initiative. We are happy to report that a very generous donation from Edesia, maker of the famous Plumpynut™; and a grant from Global Support and Development (GSD) NGO allowed for the delivery of ready-to-use-therapeutic food to support our MHI nutrition program.

After several delays due to the world-wide shipping crisis, three containers loaded with 2500 cartons of Plumpy’Doz, Nutributter and Plumpy’Nut, finally arrived to the port on the Atlantic side of Guatemala last Saturday. Fortune was on our side, and the containers were released from customs in a record one day!!!

All three containers traversed the eastern part of the country and arrived at “Los Encuentros”, a road intersection which means “the meeting place” because it connects various provinces of the country with each other. There, teams from the provinces of Retalhuleu, Tecpan, and Quiche met with our team from San Marcos, and unloaded about 1/3 of the product. Two containers continued on to San Marcos, to the western highlands where we work.

This collaborative effort between The Maya Health Initiative, our sister NGO Bitol, Edesia and GSD will make it possible to treat several thousand malnourished children over the next year. We are all very grateful for everyone’s help in making this possible. 

In addition, the support of all our donors has allowed  us to hire another nurse to assist in identifying and treating malnourished children on the coast of San Marcos, working with our colleagues at the Hospital de la Familia, in Nuevo Progreso. The pandemic, inflation, and the rising food prices are hurting families in and contributed to an increase number of malnourished children. We cannot thank everyone enough for your generosity.

March 2021 - Update

Hello from San Marcos to all of you who have so generously helped MHI with your donations. It’s time for a first quarter update.

The COVID pandemic is still with us, but travel restrictions have been eliminated, business are open, and people are moving about. Most are masked, at least in the cities. No one knows how many cases there are, and the vaccine is still not available. Until the end of October, most of the rural “aldeas” were isolated, and access to markets was restricted or impossible. We could not do therapy, so instead focused on nutrition. In addition to the Plumpysup® generously donated by Edesia, we spend four $10,000 aliquots of money on basic food stuffs for families identified to have the most need. Several hundred families received donations of corn, beans, and a nutritional supplement known in Guatemala as “Incaparina”. The directiva in San Miguel Ixtahuacan was responsible for negotiating prices, identifying the neediest families, and delivering the products. The program was a proverbial “finger in the dike,” but I believe was of great help to many people.

Four weeks ago the therapy program restarted, with protocols for hygiene, social distancing, etc. Our initial impression is that many children have suffered setbacks in the improvement they had shown pre-pandemic, which is not surprising. We have hired 2 additional therapists to allow us to recuperate as many children as fast as possible. The additional help will also allow us to accommodate the increase in patients we anticipate will come when the pandemic is over. Both of the new therapists are recent graduates put through school by Padre Erich of San Miguel- they are both fluent in Spanish and the local idiom Mam.

Some of you read about the massacre of 19 people, including at least 11 Guatemalan migrants, at the Mexico-US border. The Guatemalans came from Comitancillo an extremely poor municipality that is adjacent to San Miguel. We have some patients from there, and provide help to a nutrition program. One of the victims was a 17 year old girl who was heading north to try to make money to pay for surgery for her baby sister, who has a cleft lip and palate. The family wanted to pay a Guatemalan surgeon to repair the baby’s lip- this because all of the visits of American specialists were cancelled due to the pandemic. We did not know about this baby. We had paid for a cleft lip repair for one of our patients in November; the surgery was done by a Guatemalan surgeon who agreed to help us at a much reduced cost. The week before the massacre we spoke about the possibility of announcing that we would help any child in the altiplano with a cleft lip. Children with cleft palate obviously suffer terribly. We know that this will be costly- the surgery is one problem- the bigger issue is the expense of the infant formula these babies need, since they can’t breastfeed. The kids also need to be followed closely to assure they gain weight, and for the various medical problems for which they are at risk. We now have 11 patients, some with cleft lips/palates, a couple with just a cleft palate. The baby whose sister died was operated on last week with the help of another NGO. We’ll continue to help the others, and those who will invariably hear about our program, until such time as the medical jornadas resume. In the best case scenario this will be 6 months to a year; there will be a huge back-log of cases. Yesterday we brought 4 of ours to Antigua to meet the surgeon.

I want to thank everyone again for their support. It has been a difficult year for the world. I wish everyone a better 2021. May we all stay healthy.

Bill

Source: /stories/2021/3/31/march-2021-update

MacLehose Trail Hike - Fundraising for MHI

Here is a fun way to support MHI towards the year-end fundraising. 

One of MHI’s friends, Kevin is hiking the MacLehose Trail in Hong Kong!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw8toqymldY&feature=emb_logo

The MacLehose Trail is a 100 Km (60 Miles). A group of friends are supporting Kevin’s outing and are pledging USD $5 per every Kilometer. 

We are thankful for the enthusiasm and support of our friends and hope to reach out to more children and  their families  for nutritional support in the Guatemalan Western Highlands.

Would you help us reach more children with $1/Km or $1/mile or any other amount ?

http://www.mayanhealthinitiative.org/donate  (indicate you are supporting Kevin’s hike)

#MHIMacLehoseFundraising

Last Updates of 2020

Dear Friends,

We hope that everyone is well  and will enter Thanksgiving and the Holiday Season healthy and able to enjoy as much as possible in the middle of COVID19 social distancing. 

Before 2020 comes to an end, we want share a few updates.  As we are trying the get away from COVID19,  over the past two weeks, hurricane Eta hit Guatemala causing flooding and death in the country’s Southeast.  We operate in the Western highlands and Pacific coast; and have avoided the devastation that Eta brought to the Atlantic side.  Eta is now bracing for round 2, as hurricane Iota nears landfall.  Rescue efforts are underway, and MHI joined them with a donation of  PlumpySup for the food relief program in the capital. Our ability to help is limited, as we are literally on the opposite side of the country.   

For the fourth time in 2020, MHI allocated  money for emergency food relief in the “altiplano”. Our nutrition team has delivered foodstuffs to the most remote areas, where access to markets is still limited. We hope the next few months will offer some improvement in this situation.  

Our physical therapy program is slowly resuming, focusing on patients who most need treatment.   Despite COVID19  we have supported some of the needed surgical and medical needs for some of the children in the rehabilitation program.  This part or our service is very important for our children and we hope to be fully functional in 2021.

A new exciting update is that in the beginning of November we bought 4 portable Butterfly ultrasound probes. This probes connect to a mobile device and with the help of an app they display the images obtained with the probes. As you can imagine this technology could go a long way in the rural areas.    A couple of weeks ago a young woman in San Miguel died during childbirth due to an undiagnosed placenta previa. Her death could have been prevented should we have detected her condition with an ultrasound. Our plan is to begin the program this coming January.  We are beginning to train selected midwives (comadronas) living in remote communities, they will go through a didactic course focused on identification of high-risk pregnancies and practice with a portable  ultrasound machine MHI bought for the clinic in San Miguel, so they learn to manage the Butterfly hand-held device.  We hope this initiative will help to reduce the feto-maternal mortality.  We are looking forward to kickoff the program in early 2021.

Last but not least, all the food and medical relief we provided to the children and families in the “altiplano” during this year has been possible because of you. We are grateful for that.

May you all stay safe during the Holiday Season, and may 2021 bring an end to the COVID19 pandemic.  Thanks for your support.  

Mayan Health Initiative  

Contando las Bendiciones del 2020

Saludos a todos,

Deseamos que estén bien esperando la Navidad con buena salud para poder disfrutar de las fiestas  en la medida de lo posible en medio del distanciamiento social impuesto por el COVID19.

 Este es el último reporte del año antes de terminar el 2020.  Como ustedes saben, a la crisis del COVID19   se ha sumado la devastación producida por el huracán Eta en la parte sur del país.   Entendiendo la situación y necesidad de la gente, MHI se unió a los centros de acopio organizados en la capital haciendo una pequeña donación  de PlumpySup.  Nuestra habilidad de ayuda es limitada ya que literalmente estamos en el lado opuesto del país.

Por cuarta vez en el año,  MHI  dedicó fondos  para los esfuerzos de ayuda durante la pandemia del COVID19,  y con ello hemos ayudado a  cerca de 800 familias en el 2020.   Los miembros del programa de nutrición  se han encargado de entregar alimentos básicos  en las áreas remotas sin acceso a mercados. Seguimos esperanzados  en que la situación mejore en el 2021.

El programa de terapia  física está resumiendo las actividades lentamente.  Por el momento atendiendo a los niños que más lo necesitan.   Sin embargo, hemos tenido la oportunidad de asistir a algunos niños con necesidades quirúrgicas o intervenciones médicas.

Una noticia nueva y muy emocionante para MHI es que a principios de noviembre adquirimos 4 unidades portátiles de ultrasonido.  Las unidades se conecta a un celular y mediante una aplicación  las imágenes captadas por el ultrasonido se pueden ver.  Hace algunas semanas una jovencita en San Miguel murió durante el alumbramiento debido a hemorragia severa debido a una placenta previa que no se pudo diagnosticar por la falta de ultrasonido. Si hubiésemos contado con esta tecnología hubiéramos podido prevenir su muerte.  Nuestro plan es  entrenar a algunas comadronas que viven en las comunidades remotas.   Las comadronas harán un curso didáctico enfocado en la identificación  de embarazos de alto riesgo y luego practicaran con el ultrasonido portátil, para familiarizarse con la prueba.  Con este programa esperamos contribuir a reducir la mortalidad materno-fetal.

Finalmente,  les gradecemos enormemente toda su apoyo, ya que eso nos ha permitido ayudar a tanta gente en el altiplano.  Que Dios les multiplique las bendiciones y los mantenga saludables.  Que tengan unas muy felices fiestas navideñas y que el 2021 sea próspero y sin  COVID19.

Mayan Health Initiative

Dried corn means tortillas, and tortillas mean survival!

Greeting from San Marcos,

I am sending along the third quarter update for MHI. Guatemala is still in pandemic mode with COVID19 case increasing.  However in the last week some of the travel restrictions in place since February are being lifted. Public buses are now moving between cities, supposedly with spacing between seats, as opposed to the pre-pandemic overloaded chicken buses. More importantly, there are no more roadblocks between departments.

Given the shutdown, prices of many basic foodstuffs increased sharply, causing hunger in the rural areas.  As you remember, in April we allocated money to buy foodstuffs and help 200 families.  In July, the MHI board approved additional money to help another 200 families.  As you may have seen in our Facebook page and website, the nutrition team has been arduously distributing dried corn, beans,  Plumpynut, and Incaparina, to families in San Miguel and adjacent municipalities. Many of the recipients are elderly folks and single mothers who live in rural villages cut off from the markets due to lack of transportation. We also continue to support families who participate in our rehabilitation program.  Unless things lighten up significantly, we may need to support a third round of foodstuff distribution, as this is a must needed help in these difficult times.

Our rehabilitation program has been on hold since March. The delay of physical therapy during the pandemic is a world-wide problem. Thankfully most of our families have been trained to do exercises at home which will reduce the effect of delayed physical therapy in children with disabilities. Our therapists stay in contact with their patients, and are working a plan to resume therapy as soon as possible. We will follow protocols developed by the public health system in order to minimize the risk of exposing either the patient or the therapist to COVID19.

Despite travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic, I have been able to take several children from San Marcos to the capital for follow-up appointments after surgery -done prior to the pandemic-.  We have several other children scheduled for medical appointments in the city:  Two of our children with cleft lips/palates are receiving nutritional support in anticipation to their surgery.  Their surgery will be financed by MHI. This time the surgery will need to happen with a Guatemalan medical team, as  there is no way of knowing how long it will be until the US  medical mission groups will return to the country. Another little girl with congenital heart disease needs corrective surgery. In preparation for that we are getting her teeth fixed prior to taking her to the heart center- bad teeth can result in a post-operative infection-. Surgeries for children with complex orthopedic problems are on hold until the pandemic is under control and visiting specialists return.  As you see, in alignment with our mission we continue to bring health care to the poorest children in Guatemala, making a meaningful impact in their lives.

I really want to thank everyone for their continued support. I know how difficult the last several months have been in the US, on multiple levels. I want you to know how grateful the folks are for your help. The team in San Miguel have told me that many people literally weep when they receive the donation of food. As simple as it seems, in this part of the world dried corn means tortillas, and that means survival!

Take care everyone.

Bill