The Guatemala Project

Wednesday, 11 November 2009 21:26

Members of  St. Michael's Guatemala Project work tirelessly during the summer to help sustain indigenous Mayan communities that have relocated during the country's violent ongoing internal conflict.

A meeting at the St. Michaels church reveals the successes and failures of the project and gives some insight into the people who work for free to better the lives of people in a struggling culture.

Flashback to 1993 where the Guatemalan civil war was in full effect and native Mayans, many who were teachers and students, were being systematically murdered by the army, an event later dubbed the "silent holocaust."  Rebel forces fought back but eventually fled with thousands of civilians to the jungles and mountains for refuge.

Back in the U.S., a Tucson-based, non-profit organization prepared to launch its first attempt for civilian aid.

Sixteen years later, Aila Abernathy, who formed the successful non-profit called the St. Michaels Guatemala Project, continues to head south every summer to help re-establish many of the communities who were forced to relocate.

Volunteers and coordinators for the Guatemala Project met at the Episcopal Parish of St. Michaels church, located at 602 N. Wilmot Rd., for an in-country update after traveling to Guatemala this past summer.

Aila Abernathy headed the discussion about what the teams achieved and the challenges they had to face while trekking through the rural mountainous areas to aid the indigenous peoples.

Abernathy presented a detailed slideshow of photographs and talked about the organization with previous participants, so that audience members interested in becoming volunteers could learn more about the project.

She said the non-profit organization was able to raise $7,000 dollars in seven days while in Guatemala. Sponsors from the United States who knew about the project donated money as well as local Guatemalan health promoters.

The money raised was used to buy multivitamins for undernourished children and pregnant mothers and it was also used to put screens on windows and netting on beds, Abernathy said.

“One of the problems is that all of the healthcare professionals are centered in larger cities and do not travel into more rural areas,” Abernathy said. “We can’t be there for longer than several months at a time, so we focus on educating community members so they can treat people once we are gone.”

Abernathy explained that the healthcare professionals that volunteer for the program often try to incorporate native traditional health practices into the training sessions.

Archeological evidence suggests that the Mayans used sharp spines and thorns of various plants for acupuncture thousands of years ago. Guatemala Acupuncture and Medical Aid Project or GUAMAP, an organization that works closely with the Guatemala project, is implementing this ancient practice, mostly common within ancient Chinese medicine.

Abernathy also addressed the fact that many classes, one used to train locals on basic medical procedures, had to be canceled for several weeks due to dengue fever.

Dengue fever, which is prominent in many tropical areas around the world, is spread by mosquitoes and can be fatal.

“Many call the dengue an epidemic, but in Guatemala it is a severe outbreak,” Abernathy said. “Luckily no one from our teams was infected.”

In response to a question from the audience about crime and safety concerns, Laurie Melrood, who works for GUAMAP, said the teams are always aware and cautious while traveling in Guatemala.

“We always travel with people of the community and never venture off individually,” Melrood said.

Guatemala has one of the highest violent crime rates in Latin America, and tourists have reported kidnapping for illegal adoptions and murder for organ harvesting, according to the U.S. Department of State travel web page for Guatemala.

Although the website states that in 2008, approximately 40 murders a week were reported in Guatemala City alone, Abernathy said most of the crimes committed involving foreigners revolve around thefts, not murders.

"While the vast majority of murders do not involve foreigners, the sheer volume of activity means that local officials, who are inexperienced and underpaid, are unable to cope with the problem," according to the U.S. Department web site.

It further stated that the rule of law is lacking since the judicial system is weak and well-armed criminals know there is little chance that they will be caught and punished.

Gretchen Gibbs, who has volunteered for the project for three consecutive years, said she has never had any problems with violent locals.

However, she said that the terrain could be very difficult and dangerous, especially for people who are not used to the ascent.

“In order to qualify to be a volunteer, people need to be physically fit since sometimes we hike eight hours straight up a mountain," Gibbs said. “The elevation and insects get to a lot of people.”

Gibbs said that people also need to have summers off and must have special skills in order to be considered for a team position.

She said that she has always been interested in the affairs of Guatemala and when she met Abernathy at St. Michaels, she was inspired to try and make a difference in the world.

“This was my chance to go and educate these people and at the same time, learn more for myself,” Gibbs said.

She said the experiences she has taken away from being involved with the project every summer are priceless, even though it makes her realize how depressing life can be.

"You know, it's like how that saying goes, ignorance is bliss," Gibbs said.

Sarah Roberts, who is a registered nurse has also volunteered for the Guatemala project, but has continued every summer for seven years.

Roberts said the project receives donations of medicine and supplies from Southwest Medical Aid, World Care and Carondelet/St. Mary’s hospital that she disperses to people in need.

“I usually do medical consults and work with local community health promoters to help the people in these desolate areas,” Roberts said.

She said although she wishes the project could reach every community in Guatemala, there are specific regions that the project focuses on.

"The CPR-Sierra (Communities of Population in Resistance of the Sierra) are people, primarily Ixil and Quiché Maya farmers that are from the Ixil area of northern Quiché, Guatemala," according to the project's web site.

This region is one of the areas that felt the hardest hit during Guatemala's long and violent internal conflict.

“Each team of people who all have varying skills usually travel by donkey and follow a specific circuit to the different communities,” Robert's said. “Each team follows their own circuit and usually stays in each village for about four to five days.”

She said there can be a language barrier since most of the locals speak native Mayan languages like K'iche' and Ixil.

Roberts said these languages are difficult to learn and knows only a handful of words even though she has traveled there every summer for seven years.

She said many locals also know Spanish, which is the common language used to communicate with community members who only know the native tongues.

Roberts said she has learned a lot from the natives and has much compassion for the hardships they have had to endure.

Most of the people in Guatemala are of Mayan decent and throughout the years have been constantly subjected to extreme racial discrimination and repression, according to the article Guatemala: A Brief History, published on the Global Exchange website.

Although the Mayans were dominated and abused by the Spanish, the Guatemalan army has been engaged in civil war with the natives since the early 1980's.

In 1981, a civil rights movement began with efforts to unionize and end the repression, while at the same time, several armed resistance groups came together forming a united front called the U.R.N.G. that rebelled against the army. 

“Often referred to as the "Silent Holocaust", the campaign left 200,000 civilians dead at the hands of the military death squads, and 440 Mayan villages wiped from the map,” according to the article. “The union movement in the capital was crushed, and the literacy and rural health movements were destroyed as well.”

The civil war between the army and the subsequent guerillas and local civilian resistance populations pushed thousands of Guatemalans to flee the country or to seek refuge in the jungles or rural mountainous areas.

Many people still residing in these rural areas, do not have healthcare, they don’t get enough food to eat, they have no clean drinking water and there are no educational institutions.

Many of these migrants have extremely poor health and over half of the population is illiterate, according to Guatemala: A Brief History.

Roberts said the daily lives of these people are full of so much sadness and yet they still joke around and play music with each other.

She said the Mayan people have a common motto that says, "We are sad and yet we dance,” when roughly translated into English.

Written by Emily Jones You are reading The Guatemala Project articles