Espero que pueda mostrarte el camino

Today was really an awesome day. While I'm still tired from the lake (I promise, I will do a post about that tonight), I finally realized what I want my project to be. For the past 5 weeks, I've been trying to come up with some type of research/ project to culminate (and maybe be continued in the future) my DukeEngage experience. Receiving DE funding is such a blessing, and I don't want to passively cruise through my experience.

At the clinic, I work as a children's health educator, which requires teaching talleres (lessons) to the children both in and out of the clinic. However, when the children come to the clinic, their parents (usually mothers) often come with them. Through the Healthy Schools program, we teach the children nutrition, hygiene and how to brush their teeth, and after they receive a free checkup and medicine (if needed) from the doctors. Today, while I was watching one of my coworkers teach the teeth-brushing section of the lesson, I began to look at the children's teeth and realized that many of them have not so great teeth :(  I think came to the realization that just teaching the children probably isn't the best way to go about implementing behavior change. It would be beneficial to teach the parents, who sit and talk to each other during the times the children have their lessons. I talked to my supervisor, and she agreed that it would be a good idea to think of some lesson plans for the mothers! This would be really awesome because it would engage the parents as well and try to implement behavior change from multiple areas.

Hopefully I can begin planning tonight and get this together as quickly as possible!!


Until next time,

xoxo

Week one at the clinic!

This week at the clinic was not very eventful. However, as a part of the program I'm working with (child education), we travel to various communities that are too far away to come to the clinic. This week, we traveled to 3 different schools.

To get to these schools, we not only had to walk, we were HIKING UP MOUNTAINS to get to them. I probably walked/hiked 4 or 5 hours in 2 days of visiting schools. However, the view is breath-taking.

The beginning of one of the mountains we climbed up

The view from halfway up the mountain

Up a little higher

Children at one of the schools we taught at

Primeros Pasos

The clinic I'm working with, Primeros Pasos is a very small clinic located in the Valley of Quetzaltenango (Xela). Through the clinic there are various initiatives, including the Child health education program, women's program, and the newly started nutrition program. The clinic provides health care and education to people living within the Valley, both close and far away. Primeros Pasos is operated by the various program coordinators, one permanent doctor, one permanent dentist, and rotating Guatemalan medical students. It is really interesting to see healthcare in such a different environment. Here is the website if you are interested in finding out more about the organization:

http://www.primerospasos.org/main.html