Giving Compass' Take:

• The Center for High Impact Philanthropy highlights Curamericas as a high-impact opportunity to improve healthcare in Guatemala. 

• What can funders offer beyond financial support? 

• Learn about more organizations vetted by the Center for High Impact Philanthropy. 

Curamericas trains local women to provide health services for their communities in a remote region of Guatemala.

Curamericas Global works through its in-country partner, Curamericas Guatemala, to provide health services to a population of 8,700 indigenous people in a remote mountain region of northwest Guatemala. Geographic isolation, cultural discrimination, and mistrust of outsiders stemming from civil war have left this population without a reliable local source of maternal care or primary health care for young children. As a result, it has some of the worst health outcomes in all of Latin America: a mortality rate for children under five years of age that’s almost 60% higher than that of non-indigenous Guatemalan children, and a maternal mortality rate that is double the rate for non-indigenous women.

70% of women in one municipality served by Curamericas deliver in a health facility, compared with only 30% of indigenous women who live outside the project service area.

To address these disparities, the Curamericas partnership trains local women as volunteer mother peer educators. These mothers teach other mothers in their community about life-saving health practices, such as proper sanitation/hygiene to prevent disease and the importance of giving birth in a clean, supervised setting, such as a birthing center. Curamericas operates three such centers, known as Casas Maternas Rurales. The Casas are built and operated by the community and staffed by trained nurses who work in conjunction with Comadronas, indigenous midwives who are respected in the community and who help Curamericas staff gain and maintain the trust of local women.

Read the full article on healthcare in Guatemala at The Center for High Impact Philanthropy.