GUATEMALA – Access to the Tuilcanabaj Clinic

In the mountains of Quetzaltenango Province in Guatemala, local charity ACAM provides maternal and child health clinics in four isolated communities. The Tuilcanabaj community is served by one of these clinics, but, despite the pressing need for midwifery support in these isolated mountains, the clinic there has a consistently low turn-out amongst local pregnant women and new mothers. There is a simple reason for this low turn-out – difficulty of access.

The clinic in Tuilcanabaj is located on a hillside and reached by a series of rough steps cut into the hillside. Guatemala’s rainy season, from April to October, makes the midwives’ hand-carved dirt steps a continuous hazard, with the risk of a fall ever-present, presenting a barrier to the provision of quality care in the community.

Our funding will pay for the construction of concrete steps up to the clinic, allowing safe access all year round. Funding the construction of these steps is a small and inexpensive project, but the importance of this project is best summed up by a comment from one of our team: “Avoiding just one incidence of a slip and a fall, and a resultant still-born child is well worth the funds we are investing”. These simple steps will help to change lives in Tuilcanabaj.