A Promise Of Health

Causes: Community Clinics, Community Health Systems, Food, Health, Nutrition, Public Health

Mission: In rural Yucatán villages scattered across the peninsula live 900,000 Maya. The majority live in abject poverty. In most of these communities there is no medical service. Where available, it is only a visiting government doctor who arrives without any medicine.The people who live in these villages each less than $400 a year. Most are subsistence farmers who depend upon their crop to feed their family and livestock if they have any. For many families, any meat is a rare delicacy. For most the diet is corn, bean, and now Coca Cola bought with the few pennies they have.Malnutition exists with most children. All have some kinds of intestinal parasites from poor sanitation, dirt floors, and animals. Adults suffer from the same diseases and more including arthritis and rhumatism. In the rainy season respitory diseases are rampant, as is dengue fever and cholera. One in four Maya will be diabetic in their lifetime. Cataracts come early and eye diseases are common.A Promise of Health, with homeopathic doctors who live in the communities they serve, provides basic healthcare to all in need at no cost to the patient. Our doctors also teach health and nutrition classes in the village schools.With a network of medical specialist we can also help those with more challenging health issues. Each year, in partnership with Merida eye surgeons we provide cataract surgeries to 25 patients from the villages.The needs are great and the resource are few, but since 2001, A Promise of Health doctors have seen 50,000 patients and given nearly 100,000 medications. Our doctors also teach sanitation, personal health and nutrition classes in all the village schools including instruction growing home gardens. A Promise of Health provides garden see to the children's families.Unique to A Promise of Health is our doctors live in the communities they serve. This is the first time that has ever occurred. Before we came most communities had no medical service.Today, with four doctors, A Promise of Health serves 20 communities (a population base of 158,000 people). In Yucatan there are more than 900,000 Maya poor who live rural villages. In the most remote parts of the Yucatan peninsula, there are communities with potable water and electricity. Much work remains to be done.