This week, Ak’ Tenamit was pleased to host a volunteer group of medical professionals from the organization Team-5, who specialize in Remote Emergency Medical Response. These volunteers worked with over twenty-five Promotores and Comadronas from surrounding villages in a weeklong training focusing on Emergency First Response in remote rural areas. Promotores and Comadronas practiced skills such as complete patient examinations, burn treatment, checking vital signs, and other effective skills for first aid responses to emergencies.

One Ak’ Tenamit student serving as translator to volunteers and participant in the training reflected on the significance of learning about practical examinations and emergency wound care. The training permitted him to work with patients and practice medical procedures throughout his week of Practica internship at Ak’ Tenamit’s clinic. The week ended with a small celebration recognizing Promotores and Comadronas with certificates in Emergency Medical Response training.

Skills learned and practiced by the Promotores and Comadronas are vital to their work in the field. Often in cases of emergency in communities, illnesses and injuries must be handled within the villages themselves, and there is no way to reach outside medical assistance.  Because medical supplies and resources are so limited in addition to the lack of health centers in rural areas, this training was a first step in addressing many serious healthcare needs. With emphasis on emergency response care, the week was full of imperative information and healthcare techniques that will enhance the regular medical aid received by people in the villages we serve.

We are grateful for the experience and work of our fantastic medical team at Ak’ Tenamit clinic, the student and volunteer translators, and Team-5 who led this training.

He reflects that in his one year at Ak’ Tenamit school, he has been given considerable access to resources and experience through Ak’ Tenamit’s school and “Practica” Internship Program, both of which have made the difference in what he wants to do with his life. Ak’ Tenamit not only gives a very good practical training, he says; it also gives students information about all of the opportunities there are.

With a rich enthusiasm in his face, Rico describes that he wants to be an English teacher at public schools in the surrounding villages, and to perhaps work at Ak’ Tenamit school one day as well. He has aspirations to attend university in Guatemala to further his language education in order to give back to his communities by educating Q’eqchi’ youth. Rico also describes his love for learning other languages, and desires to one day speak five languages: Q’eqchi’, Spanish, English, German, and French. He says that all languages sound beautiful to him.

Through Ak’ Tenamit, Rico feels he is prepared to support rural well-being efforts in his local communities both independently and through governmental and non-governmental organizations. He sees the benefits of working within his communities and aiding the people directly, and feels confident in the potential of the well educated student population at Ak’ Tenamit.

Rico now works as a Maestro de Servicio to students completing their Practica at Ak’ Tenamit’s cafe and restaurant, Buga Mama, in Livingston.

The students’ projects ranged from constructing a dry compost toilet, to creating plant nurseries, reforestation, upgrading kitchen infrastructure and improving tourism opportunities at the school.  It is encouraging to see that all groups designed their projects to reduce environmental impact and emphasized natural resource conservation.  Considering that their rural villages’ well-being is so closely linked to the environment it is critical that they learn to prioritize sustainability in project design.

For example, one group of students constructed a dry compost toilet.  Managing waste in their communities is tricky because they lack proper sewage infrastructure; contaminated water is a primary reason that the region cannot control its soaring gastrointestinal disease rates.  After investigating different types of toilets and their effects on the environment, they concluded that a dry compost toilet is the most suitable for their location.  It is simple, cost effective, and can be built with local materials.  It also does not contaminate the environment, it does not need water, and after a certain time the waste can be recycled as compost for the agricultural area.

Well done, seniors, and good luck as you prepare for graduation in November!

Zoila admits that she was very shy when she arrived because she had been taught that as a girl her voice didn’t matter.  “Here they encouraged me to speak in class and I learned that I am valuable, that I can do anything I set my mind to.  Anything.  Now I want to make sure every woman and girl knows that they are capable!”

As her self-confidence grew, Zoila became a member of several student councils at the school, and her own experiences inspired her to become actively involved with our We Must Educate the Girls program.  Zoila graduated from the Moran Center last fall with a diploma in Rural Community Development and says, “I feel so happy to have achieved my dream and reached a place that hardly anyone else reaches.”

In the future, Zoila hopes to receive a university degree and is passionate pursuing about a career that will allow her to empower indigenous women to stand up for their rights and earn a decent living.  She is currently working as a girls’ residential counselor at the Moran Center and as a program coordinator with the We Must Educate the Girls program to gain experience coordinating girls’ empowerment activities and to have the opportunity to attend leadership trainings related to women’s rights.

“Here at the project students, community members, and workers celebrated by participating in traditional Mayan ceremonies, cultural activities, and dancing the Baile del Venado.  As a volunteer and essentially an outsider, it was extremely rewarding and I feel so honored to have been a part of it.  The most moving ceremony that I participated in was one in which spiritual guides and elders led the community in a consecration of site I.  Although the ceremony was in Q’eqchi which meant I didn’t understand a word, the sense of solidarity and spirituality of the people was so empowering that at that moment I truly felt a part of the community.  The most impressionable moment for me in the ceremony was when everyone we prayed to the four cardinal directions, to the sky, and to the earth simultaneously— out loud, in whispers, or in silence and it would last for about 2-3 minutes and then everyone would cease to talk.  The sense of community emanating from that space is one that I seldom experience in the United States.

Students perform the Dance of the Deer

The week was also filled with performances of the famous Baile del Venado (Dance of the Deer), a traditional Mayan dance that tells the story of two hunters (a man and a woman) who kill a deer without asking Mother Nature’s permission and the animals of the jungle seek retribution by sacrificing a dog in return.  The dance is about four hours long and is performed by boys from the school dressed in colorful and beautifully adorned costumes.  It serves as a test of their endurance and a sign of their cultural pride.”

• 100% indigenous (decisions by the people and for the people!)
• 50% women/50% men
• Average age of members is 23
• 100% representative of the villages they serve

We would like to give special recognition to Sasha Romero, who is the first member of the Garifuna community to be elected to the Board.  The Garifuna is an indigenous group unrelated to the Maya who live along Guatemala’s Caribbean coast. There is a large Garifuna community in Livingston, the town where several of Ak’ Tenamit’s practical classrooms are located, and we are pleased that this group has a voice on the Board.

How are Board members elected you ask?  Good question.  The Board is elected by the General Assembly.  The General Assembly is composed of representatives from the 30 villages Ak’ Tenamit serves.  Each village that contributes basics grains or manual labor to Ak’ Tenamit’s operations is eligible to select one man and one woman to represent their village in Ak’ Tenamit’s General Assembly.  This process ensures regular, local participation in our decision making.  The Board regularly monitors programming and spending and oversees budgetary and strategic planning.

(Pictured L to R)

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President – Lola Cabnal
Vice President – Lucas Che Ical
Secretary – Sara Bo Che
Treasurer – Eduardo Choc Maas
Vocal I – Mirza Shol Cucul
Vocal II – Mateo Chub Caal
Vocal III – Rolando Chun Xol
Vocal IV – Zulma Chen
Vocal V – Sasha Romero

OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
Adan Tec Caal – President
Saqueo Ak Cuz – Secretary
Mirza Chub Choc – Vocal I

Their most recent project involved coordinating the installation of 33 improved cookstoves in Barra Sarstun- that’s one cookstove for every family in the village.  These cookstoves will replace the open fire pits commonly used for cooking that filled women’s lungs with smoke and soot as they cooked.

Chris Patterson, a team member at EcoLogic, gives a first hand account of the installations as well as the seminar he led at Ak’ Tenamit’s to teach students about conservation and sustainable project design.  Thanks for the update, Chris!

“Save the Children, World Vision, Actionaid. Cisco, Nokia, and Shell. These are the names of several organizations and socially conscious businesses which one might expect to find at the United Nations “Innovation Fair” on education. Yet, this week, amongst these fine and life-changing groups, sits Ak’ Tenamit. This is an affirmation of all that our students, the students that you have helped to support, have done.

Today, Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, welcomed Ak’ Tenamit and the other presenters. She spent time at our booth learning about what makes the work taking place in the Guatemalan jungles so special.

Already conversations are under way with groups from Malawi, India, and neighbors back in Central and South America. Ak’ Tenamit hopes to make new, strategic alliances; to learn from the experiences of other groups, and to share its life-changing methodologies to help other rural and indigenous villages across the globe.”

www.aktenamit.org/donate (designate your “Immediate need” donation for Lorenzo)

Lorenzo is three years old and was born with club feet.  Corrective surgery could correct his disability but his family struggled to eat each day and expensive surgery was out of the question.  Until recently, he lay on his back, silent, day after day but not because of his club feet keeping him from squirming.  At age 3 he weighed only 24 pounds- the weight of a healthy 15 month old.  He was simply too weak to move.
 
His family lives in a rural Mayan village and rejected him because he would never be able to work in the fields or marry. In villages strapped by such crushing poverty, those who are too weak to care for themselves… well, you can imagine.
 

Dr. Omar, a doctor at Ak’ Tenamit’s clinic, was devastated when he learned about Lorenzo.  He says, “I knew that he would die in his village if he didn’t receive the operation.”  Many phone calls later, he had arranged for a surgeon to operate on little Lorenzo’s feet pro-bono.  In late December, Dr. Omar accompanied the family to a consulaton with the surgeon; he covered many of the family’s transportation expenses himself.  The diagnosis was disappointing.  Lorenzo was too malnourished to survive the anethesia and could not be operated on. 
 
What would happen to him now?  Ak’ Tenamit’s clinic has been monitoring Lorenzo for over a year.  They pleaded with his family to get his weight up. Our volunteer doctors even dug into their own pockets to purchase formula for him but Lorenzo never gained weight.  Following the news from the surgeon, Dr. Omar decided that the situation had gone on too long. 
 
He took charge of Lorenzo’s weight and kept Lorenzo at the clinic for several days.  Lorenzo received IVs until he could keep down formula and his weight gradually began to rise under the clinic’s watchful eye.  Doctors sent him back home with three months’ supply of a nutrient-rich formula that volunteers and health promoters pooled their own money to purchase.
 
It worked.  Three months later Lorenzo’s was healthy enough to undergo surgery.  On April 11, Lorenzo received the operation and it was a success.  He returns to the hospital every 2-3 weeks to have the casts on his legs changed.  His legs are becoming straighter and with therapy he will learn to walk.  He will be able to go to school, earn money for his family- even have a family of his own someday. 
 
Just as his family had committed to Lorenzo’s health, they may be forced to stop attending his treatment.  The cost to take a boat 4 hours to and from the hospital is just too much, even with the help they receive from the clinic.  $400 covers these cost and I urge you to please consider a donation.  Lorenzo has made huge gains but that doesn’t cut it in this part of the world.  Unless he completes his treatment and learns to walk his family will reject him for good and he may not see his fourth birthday.
 
To make a secure donation please visit www.aktenamit.org/donate and designate your “Immediate need” donation for Lorenzo.

The patient was a young boy who had accidentally hacked his own knee with a dirty machete, likely while helping his father tend crops. Frightened by profuse bleeding and stranded in their village, his family phoned Ak’ Tenamit, which promptly sent an emergency boat.

The bleeding continued. When the boy finally arrived back at the clinic, he was carried ashore on what one of our clinic volunteers, Dr. Bezard, described as a “military stretcher from the Second World War” strewn with blood.

Together with another doctor, he thoroughly cleaned the wound, and administered anesthesia. The blood coagulations were manually removed, and a cauterization was performed on a spurting, severed artery.  He administered epinephrine to stop the bleeding and then sewed up the torn muscles and concluded with a strong skin suture.

Dr. Bezard was quick to point out that “knives and machetes are never clean” and did not let the boy leave without a hefty dose of antibiotic. Machete wounds are not unusual for the Q’eqchi Maya.  Those living in the Rio Dulce region are primarily subsistence farmers who rely on machetes for farming and chopping firewood. “If you have any cut here, it’s 99 % machetes- in all ages, even children.” 

Thanks to quick thinking by the boy’s parents and our clinic’s emergency service, this boy was able to be treated before his injury required hospital treatment, which his family would not have been able to afford.  Rural medicine at its best!