On Saturday, February 9, 2019 the Guatemalan Consulate and Impact Global Health Alliance Global initiated a new program designed to improve the health access of Guatemalans living in the Carolinas. Andrew Herrera, MPH, the Executive Director of Impact Global Health Alliance Global joined Jorge Archila Ruiz, Guatemalan Consul, in announcing the formal start of the program. A Impact Global Health Alliance team, including many with health care education and experience, has begun providing health screenings (blood pressure, blood sugar, blood cholesterol, BMI calculation) and distributing information on how to access health care providers, including those who serve persons without health insurance or provide services at reduced or no cost as needed. The team, headed by retired nurse anesthetist Jill Block, CRNA, is made up entirely of volunteers. It welcomes all who might want to help, including those without health care experience.
Some volunteers at the Guatemalan Raleigh Consulate
Impact Global Health Alliance Global is a not-for-profit (501c3) organization based in Raleigh that has worked for over 35 years to improve the health of communities in developing nations, with particular focus on maternal and child health. Impact Global Health Alliance works with communities to identify health needs and devise a plan to meet them, helping them establish strong indigenous health organizations to foster continuity of these programs. Using Community-Based Impact-Oriented methodology (CBIO), Impact Global Health Alliance has been able to understand health care needs and measure the outcomes and impacts of interventions. CBIO involves developing a relationship with the community to be served, determining the most frequent, serious preventable or treatable health priorities, focusing efforts on the highest priority problems and measuring outcomes from those efforts. The work is refined by evaluating the outcomes and redefining the focus of efforts.
Beginning in Bolivia and expanding to other countries, Impact Global Health Alliance has now fostered projects in Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. In the Guatemalan sites, working since 2002, Impact Global Health Alliance has assisted in the establishment of four maternity clinics, Casas Maternas, in rural areas. In addition to prenatal care and deliveries, these projects provide needed immunizations, family planning and distribution of vitamins and de-worming medications. To assist in education and distribution efforts, Impact Global Health Alliance recruits volunteers from the medical professions and all walks of life to visit Guatemala to work for short stays of a week and a half. They coordinate the trips, which the volunteers pay for, and provide housing in the communities. The trips often are open to members of the public.
Learn more about our international volunteer trips here
The Impact Global Health Alliance team at a Casa Materna
Working with the maternity center staff, Impact Global Health Alliance has been able, using the CBIO process, to show a remarkable reduction in maternal, infant, and child deaths in these communities. In 2015, for example, there were ZERO maternal deaths in the partner communities. Seventy percent of deliveries in these communities occurred in the health facilities.
Learn more about our work in Guatemala here
The current program seeks to improve the health of Guatemalan immigrants in the Carolinas by helping them connect with health care providers that will accept immigrants without insurance, possibly at reduced fees. The goal is to have every immigrant Guatemalan be established with a provider, allowing continuity of care and rapid access. This will reduce the disorganized and costly use of emergency rooms and walk-in clinics for care and will improve ongoing management of chronic problems, such as hypertension and diabetes.
By working with the consulate, Impact Global Health Alliance hopes to establish a closer connection to the Carolinas’ Guatemalan community and obtain data on health care needs. The project then can establish priorities and plan other programs to meet the needs. The Guatemalan consulate program also is offering health screenings and collecting information on the immigrants’ health care needs. Further, the sessions give out details of how to access health care in their areas of the Carolinas and provide health education about common problems. After sufficient information is collected, the project can then move to the stage of deciding the highest priority areas and design programs to meet those needs.
Jill Block urges all who want to learn more about the consulate program, especially those who would consider volunteering, to contact her through Impact Global Health Alliance Global, 919-510-8787.
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