Solar street lights
Imagine total darkness on your streets from 6:30 p.m onwards….no strolling about town, visiting, or getting out to play a game of soccer, always questioning the urgency of your emergency visit or the value of going to an evening class. This is about to change in the Cooperative of Nuevo Horizonte because they’re installing 80 solar streetlights! It is an initiative that is critically important in the tropics as temperatures rise making it increasingly unhealthy to be outside midday.
Through our partnership with the local community development council, we’re lighting up public spaces so that people are able to safely connect with others, work, recreate, and live their best lives. And you can be part of it - $200 covers the cost of the solar panels and installation of one streetlight. Think about it - purchase a solar streetlight as a gift for a loved one, ask your friends to buy one for your special celebration, get together with colleagues or members of your faith community and make a difference as a team. Improving the health of both people and the planet one step at a time. How life-giving is that? Donate with the streetlight designation in the comment section and your name will be included on a plaque honouring our donors!
Children playing a game of ball outside their homes at dusk
scholarships
One of the highest reported priorities for all our partners is education - vital for the future of their young people and their communities, but inaccessible for many due to the costs involved. As a result, Bienestar provides annual scholarships to pay for some of the student expenses that includes uniforms, textbooks and other materials, and transportation so that students and their families can pursue their dreams.
In Nuevo Horizonte, Bienestar is partnering with the local Women’s Organization which oversees these funds –selecting recipients from the many applicants, and then regularly meeting with the students and their families to monitor their progress and involve them in activities aimed at fostering adolescent health and leadership development.
“I am writing to all of you at the Foundation of Bienestar to express my gratitude
for all the support given not only to me but also to the other students.
Without your support, this [study] would not be possible. It is a door that opens pathways for us.
”
Scholarship recipients sharing reproductive health resources used in class
Corazon de maria Spanish school
The Corazon de Maria Spanish school is an economic initiative put forward by a group of young people from Nuevo Horizonte in 2017. With some seed funds from Bienestar for Spanish language teacher training and a donation of space from the Cooperative membership, the school is now up and running.
A group of seven teachers manage curriculum development, student bookings, and the building itself. As of 2021, the school is accredited with the Ministry of Tourism to offer language study programs.
The Spanish school compliments the community-based tourism program as participants are able to volunteer alongside community members in their areas of interest and stay at the local hotel or hostel and eat with families, all of which greatly enriches learning Spanish in the community.
Graduation class for a group of university students from the USA
Diabetes prevention and self-management
The diabetes prevention and self-management program reflects the vision and efforts of project partners in Canada and Guatemala who view diabetes largely as a social disease. Based on the recommendations of the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization, it is part of a larger chronic disease program including cardiovascular disease and hypertension that is aimed at involving people across the lifespan in prevention and active participation in treatment decisions.
In 2017 Bienestar facilitated a diabetes health promoter training and subsequently opened the Bienestar health and wellness centre in the community operated medical clinic which is staffed by three part-time local diabetes health promoters. In collaboration with the community, they facilitate regular health and wellness clubs for women, children, youth, and people living with chronic disease, an exercise program, monthly check-ups, a health education program at the local elementary school, primary care visits with the clients living with chronic disease, access to low cost quality medications, and regular medication consultation with a primary care physician that includes diagnostic exams.
In exceptional emergency medical situations determined at the discretion of the local diabetes health promoters and in consultation with the Bienestar Board members, emergency funds are made available for life-saving treatment.
Together with support from Bienestar, community members are finding ways to support each other as they incorporate regular exercise into their lives, address chronic stresses endemic to poverty, diversify their diet with locally grown foodstuffs, and critically reflect upon the benefits and drawbacks of readily available cheap high fat, salt, and sugar products in their stores.
Nuevo Horizonte recognizes that diabetes is an emerging health crisis that is not isolated to their community. Through the local women’s organization and agricultural outreach team, they offer basic diabetes health education and support for crop diversification in remote Indigenous communities throughout the Peten where people commonly deal with the double burden of diabetes and malnutrition.
Diabetes Prevention and Self-management Program components
Association of women in Solidarity (AMES) & El Estor Emergency food distribution
The last two years have been particularly hard on the most vulnerable in society globally and our partners in Guatemala are no different. Bienestar responded to our partners’ urgent request to assist them to alleviate food shortages that were heightened by the concomitant disasters of the pandemic and Hurricane Eta and Iota in November 2020.
