We are proud to co-sponsor this well child checkup for the preschool children in San Jorge La Laguna, Guatemala!

January 10th was the first day of the Well Child Checkup clinic in San Jorge La Laguna Guatemala. Over the course of the last two weeks, the parents of the students took their children to a lab and had blood, urine, and fecal screens done to check for anemia, parasites and various other illnesses and conditions. Those results were sent to the clinic for the doctor to have when the patients came through. This enabled the doctor to have a better understanding of what was going on with the patient and address those needs at the time of the physical exam and prescribe any necessary medications which are provided through the clinic at no charge to the patient/student’s family. The screenings, necessary medications, follow up visits and possibly things like water filters (if the family doesn’t have a filter and the child has parasites) were all provided by the donations that allowed us to fund this clinic.

Today and each day until all students in the program are seen, the doctor will see between 10-15 students in the morning and 5-10 students in the afternoon. This allows Dr. Silvia to perform a very comprehensive exam, go over the lab results with the parents and educate them as to what they mean and how to treat the specific issues they may have. Dr. Silvia then prescribes the necessary medication for each student and schedule a follow up if necessary. The students also received a 30 day supply of vitamins which they get about every 30 days during the school year to help maintain better nutrition for proper development and growth.

As a group, we were able to help check in the patients, and do initial screenings of weight, height, temperature, and pulse rate. After that, they see Dr. Silvia. Interacting with the children was really fun and endearing. They are all so cute and happy. Fortunately we had translators to help us go from English to Spanish and in many cases from Spanish to Kachiquel a Mayan dialect that many of them speak in this region of Guatemala.

As the day went on and we started to collect data, we looked at the BMI of the students and were really happy to see that most of them are on the growth chart. This is an indication that the nutrition they are receiving in the sponsored preschool is working and having the desired affect of proper development which is critical to long term health and the ability to be more present in school.