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Workers in the public health sector of the departments of Escuintla, Retalhuleu and Suchitepéquez graduated from the “My Health First” program.

The sugar mills through its social arm, the Sugar Foundation –Fundazucar-, in alliance with the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance –Mspas-, graduated this week to 235 health professionals the departments of Escuintla, Retalhuleu and Suchitepéquez in the “My Health First” program, which promotes excellence in citizen care, with an emphasis on disease prevention.

In addition to learning techniques for better care and registration of attendees, health professionals also received knowledge related to the management of supplies and medications for their health centers, so they can expedite their arrival and offer a better service to Guatemalans.

The graduates are 125 public health workers from Escuintla who will obtain their diploma this Friday; as well as 60 from Suchitepéquez and 50 from Retalhuleu who received it on Tuesday. Graduation ceremonies are held at the facilities of the Guatemalan Center for Research and Training of Caña de Azúcar –Cengicaña-

My Health First, it is a Fundazúcar program, aimed at workers of the Health Posts, of the 58 municipalities of the south region of Guatemala. It started in 2017 and trained health professionals of the First level of Health care, developing in them technical skills and service attitude so that preventive health makes sense in their daily work.

The control of the health in children, family, and the epidemiological registry is deepened in such a way that the Health Post focuses comprehensively on health promotion and disease prevention.

Until the beginning of 2018, 500 people had been trained to provide care for 159 health posts, distributed in the departments of Escuintla, Suchitepéquez, Retalhuleu and Santa Rosa.

Women, youth and community leaders from 145 communities of the departments of Escuintla, Retalhuleu, Suchitepéquez, Jutiapa, Santa Rosa, joined the sugar mills to plant 10,354 trees as part of the “adopt a tree” initiative, which will take place during June and July of this year.

The project, coordinated by the Sugar Foundation –Fundazúcar- which is the social arm of the Sugar Mills and with the technical support of the National Forest Institute –INAB- and the Private Institute for Climate Change Research –ICC-, promotes that communities plant trees and at the same time protect and ensure the care of those trees and the environment.

This initiative is part of the commitment of the Guatemalan Sugar Industry with the care of the environment and is part of its 2019 Reforestation Plan.

The more than 10,000 trees come from nurseries of the Private Institute for Climate Change Research -ICC-, as part of the forest conservation program that it has been developing since 2011 with the Guatemalan Sugar Association. The ICC is an environmental advisor to the sugar mills.

The sugar mills through Fundazúcar, its social arm, trained 1,450 women from 46 communities of Retalhuleu and Suchitepéquez as part of the Better Families program.

The program, which lasted 15 months, was carried out with women in communities in the municipalities of San Andrés Villa Seca, Retalhuleu, San Felipe, Champerico, San José La Maquina and Mazatenango.

Better Families is a model of self-management that promotes Food and Nutrition Security, self-esteem, self-management and leadership in women, as an agent of change for the well-being of the family and the community.

As part of the program, a nutritional analysis is performed on children under 5 years of age, who are heavy and measured, mothers are taught to monitor the growth of their children and to identify the necessary food to give them a balanced diet; they are also taught the proper handling of food to avoid health problems. The weight and height of 907 children were monitored in the 46 communities that were part of the program.

The objectives of the program are: to develop in women of the communities practices for the adequate selection, preparation and consumption of food. Educate mothers in preventive health with sustainable actions to improve the condition of the mothers and their children, also work with, family and community and strengthen community organization to ensure self-management processes and sustainability of food security.

After 15 months of training, these women successfully completed the process, which closes with the official graduation ceremony.

“Achieving this goal, for trained women means having preventive health, food and nutritional security practices that will change their lives, those of their families and communities, may have a better quality of life and better health indicators for their families, in addition to take care of yourself as women and make decisions as a couple, ” said Anita de Castillo, director of education at Fundazúcar.

Fundazúcar, as the social arm of the sugar mills of Guatemala, started the Better Families program in 1997 and since that date has trained more than 500 thousand women in whom it achieves behavior change at the individual, family and community level, which impacts positive way in reducing childhood chronic malnutrition.

The Foundation also carries out other municipal education, health and development programs that are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations Organization.

The medical clinics of Fundazúcar located in Escuintla now offer the Otolaryngology service on the last Thursday of each month, to see the health of people with conditions in ears and throat, the cost of this consultation is Q75.

The medical clinics of Fundazúcar were implemented by the Guatemalan Sugar Mills so that the population of the south of Guatemala can access health at a low price. It is a self-financing program that serves more than 45,000 patients every year and offers 5 medical specialties: ophthalmology, general medicine, pediatrics, dentistry and dermatology; as well as three support services: optics, laboratory and pharmacy.

In the clinic: doctors specializing in ophthalmology, general medicine, pediatrics, dentistry and dermatology attend consultations for only Q30

The clinics are located at kilometer 59.5 old road to Taxisco, in front of the emergency of the Regional Hospital of Escuintla, with attention from Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

For more information call 2215-2450