Today, AFEDES invited me to join in two of their regularly scheduled activities.In the morning, I attended a workshop the staff was participating in called "Popular Education." This was interesting because we were comparing different models of education. The most common one in Guatemala and many parts of the world is the model that transmits information from one person to the other, but without allowing the student to question or debate the information.
On the other hand, the "popular education" model allows the community members to come together to analyze a problem collectively and find solutions or ideas and then act upon them. The objective here is to construct a plan together, to come out of the meeting with next steps based on an exchange of experiences and perspectives. This is critical training for AFEDES staff to receive, as most of them are working directly with the communities and are facilitating groups of women to help address local issues and needs collectively which requires them to come up with their own solutions.
In the afternoon, I tagged along with Milvian, AFEDES’ Economic Development Program Coordinator and Luisa, an intern who's currently training women in basic veterinary medicine in the of village Yalu, a 45 minutes drive from AFEDES' office. I was pleased to see that the road to Yalu had undergone a lot of improvements. On a previous trip to Yalu three years ago, it had caused damage to the bus I was on and I ended up walking an hour to the nearest town. This time the trip was uneventful.
In Yalu, we met with representatives from the village's council, who want to find a way to address a huge problem they are having with harvest mites, also known as chiggers. The mites are a dangerous pest because they often carry a tiny parasite that carries scrub typhus. Scrub typhus causes fever, headache, muscle pain, cough and gastrointestinal symptoms. It is causing severe illness in children of this village in particular.
AFEDES facilitated the meeting for representatives to come together with a plan to submit to the government to support them with vaccines and medicine. Although this is not a direct service that AFEDES offers, where possible they try to respond to an issue the women have requested support in. This is an example of how AFEDES supports women's needs outside of their traditional programs.
This day was also a trip down memory lane, when I used to volunteer with AFEDES and would accompany them on their many activities to get a sense of their work. I also had another chance to visit another community I used to spend time with.
This was the final community visit that I had for my trip, and I'm happy that I got a chance to learn so much from the groups: AFEDES, APROSADSE, and ISMU.
Hopefully, you have been able to picture a little bit of what I have visited on this trip, and maybe it'll encourage you to visit Guatemala. This country is so beautiful and the people here are optimistic, working hard for their families. I feel grateful for having met them, and it encourages me to continue to support them.
Thanks for joining me on this visit!
Until the next one....
Photo credit: Marlon Garcia
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