| News and Announcements |
 |
Benefit Dinner with Tucson Author Marge Pellegrino
July 17, 2010 |
Benefit Dinner with Tucson Author Marge Pellegrino, Saturday July 17, 6:30 pm at St. Mark's Presbyterian Church, 3809 E. Third Street, Tucson. Here's your chance to learn first hand about the acupuncture training work of GUAMAP, while enjoying a gourmet vegetarian dinner prepared with local hand-harvested desert foods.
The evening continues with a raffle of local desert products and cosmetics.
Acclaimed Tucson author Marge Pellegrino, winner of numerous literary awards for her fiction, reads from her newest book, Journey of Dreams. This is the gripping story of the wrenching journey of a Guatemalan family fleeing to the United States from the war against indigenous in the 1980's.
Tickets $36 in advance ($10 for children under12)
RSVP by 10:00 PM, Friday, July 16th or $40 at the Door, Seating Limited to 60 persons., Call (520) 623-6620 Checks made out to GUAMAP can be mailed to: GUAMAP, POB 85371, Tucson, AZ 85754. See "Press & Events" to download a flyer.
|
|
|
April - May Acupunture Training Delegation to Peten, Guatemala
April 19, 2010 |
Three North American GUAMAP volunteer acupuncturists and our 25 health promoter acupuncturists in Poptún, Petén came together in April and May 2010 for two trainings. One training covered womens´conditions and a short section on pediatric acupuncture. The other was an advanced training in Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) diagnostics for the three most advanced health promoters. Volunteers returned May 13 and provided detailed reports (after June 10, see "Projects" for details) Congratulations and a big "thank you" to Nancy Issenman (Victoria, B.C.), Eric Aufdencamp (Auden, North Carolina) and new GUAMAP volunteer Mateo Bernal (Louisville, Kentucky) for conducting these successful intensives!
Completed Trainings
April 28 - May 1
Canadian acupunturist Nancy Issenman and US acupunturist Mateo Bernal traveled to Peten, Gautemala.
May 2 - May 5
The Acupuncture Training Workshop on Women's Health Conditions was held for 24 acupuncturists in Poptun at Centro Kerigma Quetzal in Poptún. Two public clinics, conducted by the promoters, were held for women in the local community.
May 5
The Peten Acupunturists held their Fourth Annual Assembly, a lively meeting in which acupuncture practice in the Peten is reported on. Training requirements, documentation of treatments, pricing of treatments and patient care were frequent issues of discussion.
May 6
24 health promoter acupunturists reviewed their individual cases and were quizzed on point location by local promoter instructors Miguel Solval Gordillo (with GUAMAP since 1997) and Manuel Caal Caal (with GUAMAP since 1999)
May 7 - May 12
Level III advanced Class on TCM Diagnostic skills was taught to three advanced students. Two half day clinics for all types of conditions were held, with emphasis on accurate diagnosis using tongue and pulse.
DENGUE OUTBREAK REPORT BACK
Last November,2009 many of GUAMAP's supporters helped us in a great hour of need for acupuncturists and health promoters in Peten, Guatemala. Our efforts are reported on below. The epicenter of the Dengue outbreak was in Poptun. The rising levels of classical Dengue and hemorrhagic Dengue were of grave concern given several public health functions had failed to address the crisis. It should be noted, that the epidemic levels of dengue were under reported and this is part of the inherent weakness of the the Guatemalan infectious disease surveillance system and the CDC's system in Guatemala as well. For example the CDC does not monitor for dengue or malaria in the lowland semi-tropical area of the Northern and Northeastern Guatemala, but rather in Guatemala city, which is a temperate zone, and in San Marcos, which is mostly highlands with a coastal strip, sharing a border with Mexican state of Chiapas. We interviewed CDC personnel in Guatemala City, and they took our comments and said they would share them with their Ministry of Health contacts.
The actions taken by GUAMAP and briefly described below cannot be fully understood unless the fuller report is read in the project section. Highlights only are mentioned in this section.
GUAMAP administered aid funds according to the best use of the resources from our analysis during the crisis. We looked into providing testing kits, but it was impractical due to low capacity in communities to use a cold chain for samples. We settled on two ares to fund. Given that the Poptun Training center used by GUAMAP did not have screens on all the windows and doors, and that it is the place for health promoters to consult and receive services from, we decided to give a portion of funds to fumigating the center, and having screens installed on all the windows and doors of the large classrooms and dormitories at the training center to make it less vulnerable to mosquitoes.
The remaining portion was spent on ASECSA training workshops for the health promoters in other communities.The local office of the Ministry of health, and the Health Promotion Program of Poptun and ASECSA, the later two are GUAMAP's partners, held training workshops in Poptun to help health promoters distinguish the symptoms of classical dengue and hemorrhagic dengue, and when to refer patients to hospitals. They were instructed in prevention measures, and the groups carried out neighborhood inspections to destroy or burn receptacles that rain can stand in which create mosquito breeding grounds. The Health Promotion Program of Poptun also paid for testing of patients that needed it at private, non-governmental labs. ASECSA-Peten did even more training for 14 male health Promoters and six female health promoters from 17 communities. Like their counter points in Poptun, workshop participants were instructed in distinguishing symptoms of dengue, when to refer patients to hospitals, and they engaged in neighborhood action to remove containers that allow mosquito breeding during the rainy season.
For full report see: Projects > Anatomy of a Public Health Crisis: Dengue In Peten
 |
|
News and Announcements Archive
|
|
|
| |
Coordinating Committee
The Coordinating Committee plans and implements acupuncture trainings and supports community based monitoring. To read more, see: Programs
Acupuncture Working Group(AWG)
The AWG designs, implements, and revises GUAMAP's acupuncture curriculum subject to board approval. To read more, see: Acupuncture Working Group
Partner NGOs
Since 2001, GUAMAP has collaborated with the Associon de Servicios Comunitarios de Salud (ASECSA) Peten Office in San Francisco, Peten, and the Programa de Promcion de Salud of Centro Kerigma - Quetzal in Poptun, Peten,Guatemala. To read more: see Partner NGO's
|
|
| |
Training Trainings are held twice annually in May and September or October. A training level includes two week long courses with three monitorings between trainings... To read more, see: TrainingMonitoring Monitorings are carried out by trained Guatemalan acupunturists with 7- 12 years experience in practice. Day long exchanges of patient record reviews, with discussions of DX and TX. To read more, see: MonitoringEducation GUAMAP carries our education in the United States about our training model and the results of popular clinics carried out by more than 20 Guatemalan acupuncturists. Formal presentations of our work were presented to APHA ... To read more, see: Education |
|
|
|
|
