Chris Feng

Meet Chris Feng, a medical student from Northwestern University who worked with us from August 2016 to February 2017. In November, he organized a baseline assessment of barriers, access, and perceptions of health in the Palajunoj Valley. He conducted over 400 surveys, or encuestas, throughout each of the 10 communities. Here’s a peek into the planning and execution of the encuestas. All photos in this series were submitted by Chris.

The surveys were conducted by teams of 4th Guatemalan medical student (externos) paired with volunteers at Primeros Pasos. To start out, a training session was held at the main clinic to go over the survey and practice using tablets to enter responses into RedCap, a data management software.

An externo reviews the survey on RedCap outside of the clinic.

The encuesta kit: tablets loaded with the survey on RedCap, nametags, Primeros Pasos t-shirts, hard copies of the survey, and most importantly, snacks

Our favorite mode of transportation between communities in the valley: pick-up rides!

A view of the Palajunoj Valley from one of the 10 communities: Tierra Colorada Alta

Our encuesta teams hard at work conducting surveys door-to-door throughout the valley

Taking a mid-morning break in between surveys

Catching the bus after a hard day’s work

A huge thank you to the incredible, hard-working volunteers that have contributed to improving healthcare services provided by Primeros Pasos in the Palajunoj Valley