This march we will once again bring medical and dental help to a village in Cahabon, Alta Verapaz, called Tzalamtun. We have not visited this location before. The village is located 6 km north of Santa Maria Cahabon. There are 348 households, 485 families with a total population of 2,400. Due to the distance from the nearest city, most inhabitants haven’t seen a dentist or received medical treatment in their lives. The elementary school has offered us the building to set up dental and medical clinics. With the help of students and dentists we will perform extractions, amalgam and resin fillings, fluoride applications and dental sealants. Furthermore, with the help of the students and faculty from the college of pharmacy and chemistry from the University of San Carlos de Guatemala we will be able to give the patients lab work including: blood, urine, and stool samples. This will help the doctors have a better understanding in order to give accurate diagnosis and treatment. In addition, this time students from the University’s college of nutrition will help evaluate children and mothers’ nutritional needs.
The funds raised will help us provide medicine, vitamins, antiparasitics, materials, and equipment. The lab work needs chemical reagents which give accurate results and we need to bring them as well. In past projects, we have come across the problem of power outage and it has hindered our ability to provide more help. This time we need to bring portable generators. Funds will additionally cover 60 desks which we will provide for the elementary school “El Rosario.” The school has no means by which to provide a desk to each student, so some children sit on the floor or stand while in class.
Like we stated in the August 2017 report, we are bringing a water tank system to provide clean filtered water to the village of Villa Nueva Sexan. We need to buy the tank and the pipe system as well as a cement foundation that will hold it. The parents and school children often find themselves walking miles to carry drinking water to their homes in arduous terrain.
In the area of education, last November we started a project with the help of our friend Craig Cleveland and associates from Fresno State University in which we translated two children’s books to the Mayan Dialect of Q’eqchi. Jose Coronado, a member of our board, aided in the translation of the books which were delivered to the children of the Villa Nueva Sexan elementary school. Our goal is to develop a reading habit in the children and their families and create a need for the children to remain in school. With our purpose in mind, the children were provided with solar powered light bulbs. This will allow them to read in their homes at night or when power goes out. This year we would like to further the project, by translating more books and bringing them to the children, as well as using the help of the students from the graduating class of elementary teachers to oversee the project.
We greatly appreciate your donations to bring the much needed help to the children and their families.
Elementary School in Tzalamtun, Cahabon.
elementary school where the association's health clinics will be set up this march 2018.
village of Tzalamtun, Cahabon, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.