I can’t believe that my time in Guatemala is already over. The past two weeks have been full of incredible people, amazing experiences, and some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Before I move on to posting about Peru, I want to share a little bit more about the impressive organizations that I was able to work with during my time here.
During my two weeks in Guatemala, I’ve had the chance to visit two organizations in order to learn about their approach to combating the rampant childhood malnutrition in the country. Even though the Guatemalan government now considers lowering the rates of childhood stunting a major priority, their initiatives have been relatively slow to produce progress.
The first organization that I visited is called Wuqu’ Kawoq. I briefly gave an overview of their work in a previous post, but I want to describe the work of their nutrition program specifically. The nutrition program of Wuqu’ Kawoq is led by two employees, named German and Yoli. German manages the data collection side of the program, including entering all of the growth data into an electronic medical record system used to track the children. Yoli is a health educator that works with mothers in the program on a group and individual basis, giving all of her lessons in the Mayan language, Kaqchikel.
The program spans many communities, including Paquip, Paya, Solola, and the Bocacosta regions. The program identifies stunted children of less than two years to invite them into the program. The program meetings take place in Centros de Salud throughout the country. German told me that the Guatemalan government has been building dozens of brand new, state of the art Centros de Salud across the country. While this may seem like an incredible thing, apparently the majority of Centros de Salud remain unstaffed or have a doctor working there once or twice a week if lucky. They also frequently suffer from medication shortages, so the communities are unable to obtain necessary prescriptions.
That said, Wuqu’ has been able to take advantage of a less than ideal situation by utilizing these brand new spaces to host their programs. When a child first joins the nutrition program, his or her mother is expected to bring him or her into the Centro de Salud every 15 days. Once a month, for the first three months in the program, the mothers receive viveres, or groceries, of healthy, protein and nutrient dense foods to feed their young ones. Among the viveres are a half liter of vegetable oil, two dozen eggs, two bags of Incaparinas (a protein fortified corn based drink), and two pounds of black beans. These foods are meant to quickly recuperate a child who is underweight and to help them catch up on the growth curve. Many of the foods, such as oil and eggs, are often unaffordable to women in the communities. After three months, the mothers continue receiving Incaparinas every month.
The other visit in the month is used to weigh and measure the children. Each child comes into an appointment room individually to be measured. The measurements are immediately put into the electronic medical record system, and German pulls up the growth chart of the child to show the mother. With these growth charts, it is very easy to see if the child is on track for their age in terms of weight and height. These visual graphs help the mothers to better understand where their child is making improvements and where they’re falling behind. If the child has not gained adequate weight or grown enough in the last month, Yoli will discuss cooking, feeding, and sanitation practices with the mother. If a child has experienced diarrhea in the last few weeks, they receive medication for parasites. This individualized approach ensures that the program meets each family where they are at and helps them to develop healthy habits that are advantageous to child growth.
These bimonthly meetings allow the children to remain under the watchful eyes of the program directors, allowing them to intervene when a child’s growth is faltering. Besides the checkups, the program also has group education meetings with the mothers and home visits of every family in the program. These home visits allow the program directors to observe sanitation and hygiene conditions in the home. All of these things together produce a comprehensive program supporting healthy child growth.
So far, the program has seen enormous success. For example, in a town called Paya, the mothers in the program are weighing and measuring the children on their own every month. They record the measurements and give them to German to be entered into the system. In the Bocacosta region, the program directors couldn’t find any more children that qualified for the program, the ultimate sign of success! Though the success stories are numerous, the program still faces many challenging cases in their day to day work, but the program staff remain incredibly optimistic about what the future holds. I am so thankful to Wuqu’ Kawoq for letting me visit to learn more about their incredible work of providing high quality healthcare to indigenous Guatemala.