2018 July - September Newsletter
The third quarter at Primeros Pasos has seen great medical achievements, such as the first mobile clinics of the year and a successful medical fair! We are excited to share the story and many other developments with you.
Mobile Clinics
Bringing our services into the communities that are most in need of attention is a thoroughly rewarding experience. Not only can we attend between 50 and 100 patients per day, we also make sure that the most far-off and vulnerable community members receive medical and dental attention. After weeks of extensive planning on the ground, the first mobile clinics of 2018 were held at the schools of the four most remote communities we work with: Las Majadas, Bella Vista, Candelaria and Tierra Colorada Alta.
Equipped with medical and dental supplies, a team of doctors and passionate volunteers saw 288 children during the mobile clinics at school. All children received a free medical and dental check-up, including free medicines if their diagnosis required treatment.
We are very excited to announce a next round of mobile clinics that will start in October! We will bring affordable medical and dental services to these same remote communities, but this time our services will be available for all community members that are in need of medical attention.
Week-long Medical Fair with Flying Doctors
Another exciting event to happen at the clinic was the visit of a wonderful team of Flying Doctors and the week-long medical fair they hosted at the Primeros Pasos clinic. Flying Doctors consists of a team of committed professionals from Guatemala, El Salvador and the United States, whose mission is to bring a variety of high-quality services to underserved communities, such as the Palajunoj Valley. Primeros Pasos and Flying Doctors have been working together for years, and our successful medical fairs are well known throughout the Valley. For a week, the clinic transformed into a hive of activity, with extended opening hours from 7am to 3pm and services ranging from ophthalmology to orthopedics, and from gynecology to therapeutic massages. In one week we saw over 1600 patients. The high standard of their work is unrivaled and once again we want to thank Flying Doctors for all their hard work!
4th of July BBQ Bash
To celebrate the Independence Day of the United States and raise money for Primeros Pasos' projects, we hosted a barbecue at the rooftop of local hotspot Kasa Kiwi to allow the people of Xela to party and bask in the sweetness of liberty while supporting a good cause. With help from local businesses in Xela, our evening was a resounding success and exceeded all our expectations, raising Q5075 in the process. All hail the power of celebration! We want to thank the amazing team at Kasa Kiwi for all their assistance and their eagerness to help us make the event successful. A special shout out also to the GlobeMed summer volunteers for their intricate planning and relentless drive to make the event a success. Due to their hard work, all fundraising targets were smashed!
Welcome Billy!
We are very proud to welcome Billy Rayfield to the Primeros Pasos family as our brand new Volunteer Coordinator. Billy first visited Primeros Pasos in spring 2017 to write his Master's thesis about our projects, and we are very happy to have him back on board!
A big thanks to our Summer Volunteers
We were blessed to have 16 volunteers working with us this summer. Each volunteer was an asset to the clinic and worked tirelessly to continue our mission of providing high quality healthcare to the people of Palajunoj Valley. We could easily dedicate a page to each volunteer to demonstrate the high calibre of their work! Highlights of work completed include strengthening our monitoring and evaluation, creating log frames and lesson plans, painting the clinic, and updating our volunteer welcome packets. We also had volunteers conducting independent research on topics such as domestic violence, chronic pain and nutrition. Their research will strengthen our knowledge about the complicated reality of the people we serve and ensure the quality of our work in the Palajunoj Valley. We are excited to see what the future holds for these young professionals and wish them all the best!
Health for the Holidays Campaign & Amazon Smile
As the days become shorter, the leaves turn brown and heavy rains don't come to an end, the Holiday Season is swiftly approaching. Look out for our Health for the Holidays campaign that will launch soon, and remember to buy all your gifts through Amazon Smile to support our projects!
