Thank you all for your support of Marielena, who received a year of healthcare worker training due to your generostiy. A 28 year-old resident of Parajbey Village in Guatemala, Marielena is grateful for this opportunity. “I am extremely happy with the program since it has helped me become a better woman than I was before,” she said. “My husband is very happy with the things I learn in the trainings. I like it so much because my children also learn from me and people from the village see me as a role model since I take better care of my home and family. With what we planted in the garden I can feed my family better and can also sell what is left. Thank you so much for what you have given us, nobody had ever given us help like this, and even though I don´t know you I can tell you are a great person. I send you a big hug as a sign of my appreciation.”

As a result of all your efforts, Marielena is better equipped to treat the people of her region, especially those under five years of age, of which three in four are malnourished. Thank you for your support of Marielena and Medical Teams Guatemala!

Ms.Elvira Cho, is a very active lady of 62 years old, who serves as a midwife in the community of “Paapa”. She is a widow with 6 children, 4 of whom still live in the community with her.

She started working as a midwife about forty years ago, after having her first child. Since that time she has worked because she wants to help her community. She decided to get some training as a midwife at the health center of “San Juan Chamelco”, where she learned basic things that made her gain confidence and safety in care child delivery. She has served many women in her community since then.

She says: “Thank God, no child has died during childbirth that I have attended.” Through her training she has gained the knowledge to know when a woman needs to be referred to a hospital. “As I recall I have helped about a total of 30 pregnant women who would do a review and complications occurred, then have them referred to the hospital in Coban.”
“Thanks Medical Teams, See Your Impact and United Way for this kind of trainings, I have new skills for serve the woman of the community.”  And thank you, for your generous contributions to enable MTG to give Coban this training.

The village of Chitix is located in the mountains of San Juan Chamelco. The village is inaccessible by the conditions of the main road. In this community, located 188 kilometers from the City, lives Mr. Pablo Botzoc Caz; He is a forty-one years old. Pablo, a humble person, has four children and is one of the few people who support women of his community. Health issues in the part of the country that he lives are common, mainly in children and pregnant women, who have difficulties because of their conditions and lack the resources to care for their health and wellbeing.

Pablo works voluntarily as a health promoter. Concerned about the health of his neighbors, Pablo studied medicine for one year, and he has helped to guide people in need. “I like what I do, because through my work I help to aid the families of my community,” he said. “I (monitor) children’s weights and I see if they are growing well, also I helped vaccinate children in the community because it is important way to grow healthy.”

Pablo says that, because of Medical Teams Staff and United Way, he has learned a lot and has participated in trainings that have and will serve to prevent illness in the children and wives of his community.  He thanks you for the support!

It is very difficult to find stable work in rural Guatemala. Most people work for short periods of time and income is not regular.

Jose has a large family of 8 children. He is 57 years old and he works in Coban selling ice cream.  He has to walk many kilometers to see just one ice cream.

Jose says, “It’s hard to sell ice cream, especially in cold weather and rain, but God has always given me his blessing. This work helps me support my family, because I earn approximately Q40 and Q50 daily (about $5 per day) .”

After finish a hard day of work, Jose begins his second job as a health care worker in his community.

This year, through the training of Medical Teams International, with the support of United Way Guatemala and SeeYourImpact donors like you, Jose has started a new program with others members of the community to learn how to better care for people.

Now he has more knowledge. For example, he just attended to a woman who needed help during her pregnacy and helped to save the life of her child in the community hospital.

Jose says again, “I want to see a different community that is clean, with latrines in the homes, safe drinking water and everybody is healthy. I will continue working hard to see this come true.”

Thank you for supporting Jose and allowing him to make a huge difference in his community!

Dominga Xol Pop is a midwife and resident of Chamil in Guatemala. The work of midwifes in rural areas requires much compromise and responsibility. The midwives in training invest much patience and love into the attendance at births. In Guatemala, the practice of midwifery is passed down from generation to generation. This is the case for Dominga Xol Pop who is 46 years old. She is from the area San Juan Chamelco and currently lives with her husband Manuel Caal and their four children.

The first time she attend a birth was in 1987. It was a great experience for her and there were no complications. At that time, she had little knowledge of midwifery. Now she has attended about 300 births. She said, “I got involved with the training of Medical Teams International for the first time in late 2010, through an invitation from MTI to all midwives in the region. At that time we explained about the objectives of the institution, and told us they wanted to train us.”

She says she has noticed a big difference since she began to receive training with field technicians from MTI, “I have gained much knowledge and I thank the institution for the training it has given us at no cost, “says Dominga.

She says it has improved her skills as a midwife and she has been exposed to every experience that a midwife might encounter. The benefit of the training extends to the pregnant women she has served in several villages near her community. Thank you Mark, Lynn, David, Tracy, and Microsoft for the year of midwife training for Dominga. It is an invaluable resource for the women in Chamil and the surrounding communities!

Dominga Cho is 45 years old and lives in the village Chamil of the San Juan Chamelco community in Guatemala. She has been a midwife for two years. The first birth she attended was a tough experience, because the baby was premature, but the experience motivated her to continue learning more about childbirth to save lives. This is also what prompted her to seek training.

Today, Dominga has attended many births including one a few days ago that woke Mrs. Dominga  up at one o’clock in the morning. She took the equipment for midwifery that Medical Teams gave her to this birth. She said, “families of the community seek my services. I like doing my work, because God has given me this gift and the strength to serve.”

A few months ago Mrs. Dominga participated in a training by Medical Teams International. She says she is grateful for the training. She likes to learn everything related to the issues involved in saving lives (e.g. clean, safe delivery, complicated delivery care, etc.). “With this training now I know how to better serve pregnant women, for example, how to listen to the fetal heart, how to perform Leopold maneuvers, how to educate pregnant mothers, and how to recognize warning signs to prevent child and mother deaths, ” said Dominga.

She hopes to continue training with Medical Teams so she can take good care of the patients. Thank you Lesley, Tom, Jamie, Charlotte, Dean, Julie, Adam, Connie, and Kristen for the year of midwife training that will allow Dominga to provide excellent care to the women in her community!

Maria Santos lives in the village of Shamil in Guatemala. She is 90 years old. Mrs. Maria Santos remembers as a child when she accompanied her mother on visits to pregnant women. In 1996 she received training as a midwife at the Coban Community Health Center. Even though she couldn’t read or write, she learned a lot about attending to pregnancies and childbirth. “It gives me great satisfaction and joy knowing that people trust me and call me from various communities to attend women in childbirth,” Mrs. Santos said. She continued, “I have attended over 500 births and, thank God, I never made a mistake. Also I have had the satisfaction of attending the births of many of my grandchildren.”

She recently began training her daughter Maria Cuc Xol to take over her work. Thank you Kristen, Lizbeth, and Majo, from Maria and Maria, for the year of midwife training and teaching from Medical Teams!  They do very amazing work to help people in communities have healthy pregnancies and childbirths.

Catomique is a community of  San Juan Chamelco, Guatemala and is located 83 miles from the city. The only access is via a dirt road, which is in poor condition and a trip out to this community can only be accomplished with a fourwheel drive vehicle.

It is in this community where the story of Dominga unfolds. Dominga is a 58 year old woman married to Mr. Crisanto. The couple has six children; three of whom are married and live in the same home.

“A Gift of God,” is how the people of the Catomique community define the work of  Ms. Dominga. Eight years prior to when the story began, Dominga knew the basics skills of midwife work, and in her own words, “I attended the births of  my grandson and many of the people of the whole community.” Dominga says that she loves helping her community and thanks God for the gift that she has been given that allows her to help women.

Dominga has received some training from the staff of the Ministry of Health, but since 2009 she had not received any formal trainings. However, with the support of the Guatemala Medical Teams, she now receives training and is very thankful to continue this education.

She believes her work does the community a great service and she is very appreciative of all of your support so she can continue her training. Thank you all for your generosity!

Ms. Tomasa is a midwife who lives in a community located 20 miles from San Juan Chamelco Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.  She is married to her husband Oscar Cuc, and they have 5 children.

Ms. Tomasa became a midwife 16 years ago.  After she gave birth to her own 5 children without any prenatal care or support, she realized there was a huge need in her community for midwives. Ms. Tomasa firmly believes in the importance of knowledge and care so that she can serve the women in her community, improve their conditions, learn about the care of pregnancy and childbirth, and take better care of their newborns.

Ms. Tomasa says: “In 8 years I have not received any training from the health center staff, so there are some things I forgotten and I think if  I not train properly, I will not be attending the women in my community as they need. Now that I have received training by Algeria, who works at Medical Teams, I have learned new things and I like being involved in these trainings. I am grateful and ask you to continue to support midwives, as the Ministry of Health does not have funds to give training. One lesson that I liked was the Leopold maneuvers, this I had not learned and it uses a doll like me so I can see how the child is in the womb of the mother and thus I am better able to explain to women. Also if there is a child that is turned around, I can make a referral for the hospital to save the life of the woman and the child.”

Thanks to your generous donation, Ms. Tomasa and women like her are able to receive proper training and provide essential services to the women in their communities.