Guatemala Rural Healthcare

Rural mountain villages have very little access to healthcare. However, the people in the San Martin Jilotepeque municipality are the exception since that is where our partner organization, Hombres y Mujeres en Accion, has a clinic. A professional nurse, Maria Lares, manages the clinic which has a doctor, dentists, social worker, and a stocked pharmacy. Prior to the construction of the new clinic building, clinics were held in the small villages. Now more patients can be seen on clinic days in addition to better healthcare provided with equipment and supplies readily available. Many situations present themselves requiring a social worker. This addition to the team has proven very valuable with issues of abuse, alcoholism, violence, and family crisis. The new clinic building easily accommodates medical students and teams from the USA that come to practice and gain skills in rural village healthcare. A second building has been constructed as a learning center with computer lab, sewing machines, kitchen facilities, and meeting rooms where people can learn skills for employment and business enterprises.

Maria Lares

We met Maria in 2008 when she had just completed auxiliary nurse training and was going to school on the weekends to finish junior high school. She is the oldest child in her family and was in her mid-twenties at this time. Her father did not see the need for her education but reluctantly allowed her to pursue a nursing career. With her limited salary she assisted her siblings with their education and has helped the family with unexpected bills. Maria completed university to become a professional nurse in 2016 after much work and perseverance. We were very pleased when Maria was named Clinic Director.