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WASH for Health at Agua Escondida: Phase I

5/17/2019

Ana (center) and Tomás (second from right) attend the inauguration of the new facilities

Tuesday, May 14th was an exciting day for Agua Escondida Primary School and for Pueblo a Pueblo's Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools project. After months of planning and weeks of execution, Tomás and members of the Pueblo a Pueblo team traveled to Agua Escondida to celebrate the inauguration of the school’s brand-new bathroom facilities.

Agua Escondida students attend the inauguration

Agua Escondida Primary School is attended by almost 600 students from Kindergarten through high school. For years, there had only been five working toilets in the school for students to use. In 2018, Tomás and the WASH in Schools project began a collaboration with the school to design new sanitation facilities and raise the funds necessary to turn those designs into reality!

This spring, contractors tore down a bank of broken, unused toilets and built a new bank of stalls in their place. The girls' side has three new toilets and a handwashing station, and the boys' side has two new toilets, a urinal, and a new handwashing station. These new facilities will double the number of working toilets at the school, creating a safer and healthier learning environment for the students of Agua Escondida — certainly a reason to celebrate!

New boys' stalls

New handwashing stations

The inauguration ceremony began in the school’s large multipurpose room. The walls were covered with posters made by students depicting ways students can take care of the earth and their school.

During the ceremony, school administrators honored Tomás and Pueblo a Pueblo Administrative Director Ana Cabrera. After brief remarks from a variety of school and community leaders, the ceremony moved outside to the new bathrooms, decorated for the occasion by members of a local community group. The school’s principal then invited Ana to cut the ribbon on the new facilities before unlocking the doors so that students could get a look inside.

Tomás and Ana receive a gift from school administrators

The principal of Agua Escondida unlocks the new facilities

Building these new stalls is only the beginning of Pueblo a Pueblo’s collaboration with Agua Escondida Primary School. Next, our team will help to coordinate the reconstruction of a second bank of bathroom stalls in the school’s lower level, home to Agua Escondida's youngest students.

We were able to complete Phase I thanks to donors like you — now we need your help to carry out Phase II! Thank you for believing in the power of proper sanitation to keep kids happy, healthy, and learning every day.

Donate to phase II at Agua Escondida

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Spreading the Word About Sexual Health

5/15/2019

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Vilma appears on local television program "Hablemos de..." ("Let's Talk About...")

Vilma and Rebeca are the team behind Women’s Health Champions, Pueblo a Pueblo’s newest initiative to promote sexual and reproductive health education among women in and around Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala. In anticipation of the project’s launch, they have been working with local organizations and government institutions to spread the word about the project and build relationships with potential partners.

They just wrapped up a successful collaboration with the Municipality of Santiago Atitlán. The Women’s Health Champions team members were invited to participate in an episode of “Hablemos de...” (“Let’s Talk About...”), a local television series dedicated to raising awareness of public health issues. Vilma and Rebeca were featured on an episode called “Hablemos de la Salud Sexual” (“Let’s Talk About Sexual Health”). Since this program is made by and for members of the Santiago Atitlán community, "Hablemos de..." is almost entirely in Tz'utujil, the local Mayan dialect and most residents' first language.

watch the episode here!

Rebeca kicked off the segment by introducing the topic of sexual health and the day’s special focus: puberty. Vilma then spoke about the four types of changes we go through during puberty. Puberty involves physical changes, she explained, changes to our bodies inside and out that transform us from children into adolescents. But it also brings psychological changes, like the intensification of emotions and a tendency toward anger and frustration; emotional changes, like romantic and sexual attraction to others; and social changes, like the desire to relate to the world as a young adult rather than a child.

Puberty prepares the female body to carry children, Vilma explained, but although a teenage girl’s body is ready on the inside, she still isn’t physically or mentally ready to be a mother right away. Once a girl has begun to menstruate, she can get pregnant, but her body still has growing to do—her hips need to grow wider and her body bigger and taller—before she can give birth safely. She also needs to be psychologically mature in order to handle the emotional challenges of parenthood, Vilma noted.

"No one else has a right to your body," she said. "You have the right to say no if someone wants to touch your body or asks you to do things you don’t want to do."

Vilma then spoke directly to her teenage audience. No one else has a right to your body, she said. Although your body has changed, you have the right to say no if someone wants to touch your body or asks you to do things you don’t want to do. This is an important message to promote among young people, she told the Pueblo a Pueblo communications team, because educating teens (both boys and girls) about consent can help prevent future abuse and assault.

In addition to their work on the segment, the team recorded an advertisement for the reusable cloth menstrual pads that will play a key role in Women’s Health Champions. Vilma used this additional airtime to introduce viewers to the cloth pads’ health and environmental benefits. The product helps women practice good menstrual hygiene at the same time that it reduces the amount of waste created by disposable pads, she explained. Not only has Vilma’s advertisement been played on local television stations and shared on social media, but it can even be heard in the streets! From time to time, the municipality drives an ad-mobile around town playing Vilma’s message for all to hear.

Vilma advertises the pads

Watch Vilma's ad here!

We believe that economic empowerment is a key step toward improving health outcomes among women.

So why reusable pads? At Pueblo a Pueblo, we believe that economic empowerment is a key step toward improving health outcomes among women. That’s why Pueblo a Pueblo is helping to incubate the social enterprise that supplies the pads: a small business made up entirely of local indigenous women from Santiago Atitlán! The economic benefits of this product will spread even further when peer educators, or “Champions”, distribute the pads to women in their communities, producing additional income for the Champions’ households and promoting good menstrual hygiene in their neighborhoods.

Vilma and Rebeca are determined to bring sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) education to the women of Santiago Atitlán—and they need your help! Your donation promotes women’s health advocacy and economic empowerment here in rural Guatemala—consider making a gift to Women’s Health Champions today.

donate to
women's health champions

Rebeca speaks to a young guest on the program

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Family Planning for Sustainable Change

4/30/2019

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At Pueblo a Pueblo, health education is an effective tool in our efforts to improve health outcomes among women and young children. When women are more informed about their bodies and their health care options, they are more equipped to advocate for their health and the health of their families. That's why the team behind the Maternal Child Health project at Pueblo a Pueblo leads monthly workshops to introduce project participants to new ideas and strategies related to health literacy and self-advocacy.

Many women in rural Guatemala do not have access to education on family planning methods, and many lack access to the methods themselves. In 2011, a national survey showed that only 21% of Guatemalan women of reproductive age reported using a modern contraceptive method, and 72% reported an unmet contraceptive need.(1) That's why family planning is one of the central topics covered in Maternal Child Health project workshops, and when project participants turn this new knowledge into action, it often changes their lives in meaningful ways. Two out of three women in the Maternal Child Health project use a method of family planning, and the project offers not only education on the various methods available but also subsidizes participants' access to those methods at a local clinic.

Fertility awareness methods are among those covered during project trainings

Juana* is a mother of six. She joined the Maternal Child Health project in 2017 just before the birth of her son Pedro. She was introduced to family planning methods when she started attending project workshops—but despite this new knowledge, she became pregnant again a year later.

Maternal Child Health project coordinator Rebeca Sosóf brought this up with Juana during a check-in meeting last year. “We’re not trying to impart that having children is a bad thing,” she told her. “However, family planning methods can help you provide for your children by considering your family’s situation in choosing the best time to have another child.”

Shortly after that meeting, Juana began to use a family planning method. During last month’s check-in, she explained why she had been reluctant at first. “I didn’t understand what family planning had to do with my life," she told Rebeca. "But I've now decided that in order to take care of my children, I have to take care of myself, too.” Rebeca was glad to see Juana take this step. “We’ll be here to support Juana as she continues to advocate for her own well-being,” she said.

Project trainings also introduce participants to pharmaceutical methods like this once-daily pill

Ana* finished up her time as a participant in the Maternal Child Health project in March of this year when her daughter Paula turned 5 years old. When she met with Rebeca for her final check-in, Ana expressed thanks for the knowledge she gained from the project workshops. “I learned so many things that I wouldn’t have learned just staying at home,” she said.

Ana told Rebeca that in January, she and her husband sat down to discuss their plans for the future and decided that they should begin to use a family planning method. She had not used a method before this year, she explained. “But after that conversation I was able to use the new knowledge I gained through the project to pick the best method for me.” Ana and her husband then decided to begin a project they’d been considering for a while: building a new bathroom in their home! Now that Ana has taken control of spacing her pregnancies, she and her husband feel more confident in their ability to save up enough to complete the project bit by bit.

“Family planning can bring long-lasting change to the lives of women,” says Rebeca, “especially women who live in rural and low-resource settings.”

Rebeca leads an educational session on reproductive health

The stories of Juana and Ana are examples of the power of reproductive health education to empower women and their families. Rebeca and the rest of the Maternal Child Health team work hard to give women the tools they need to advocate for their health and the health of their families. Consider supporting the Maternal Child Health project today!

(1) Encuesta Nacional de Salud Materno Infantil, report (Guatemala: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, 2011).
*Names have been changed to protect project participants' privacy.

Interested in supporting the Maternal Child Health project?

become a maternal child health sponsor

The Maternal Child Health project is made possible by donors like you—a monthly gift of $30 sponsors one mother's participation in the project and provides access to preventive and curative healthcare for mother and child from pregnancy through the child's first five years of life.

make a one-time donation

Your one-time donation in any amount will bring pre- and post-natal care, reproductive health education, and family planning methods to mothers in rural Guatemala.

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WASH for Health at Agua Escondida: Phase I

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