Healthcare Access in Guatemala. O’Mara Taylor plans to spend next year volunteering in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala at Primeros Pasos, a non-profit health organization. Primeros Pasos works to improve the quality of life in rural communities in Guatemala through integrated health programs and medical services. The organization has a health clinic with a pharmacy, laboratory, and medical and dental departments. Primeros Pasos also conducts mobile clinics and health education in local schools and communities. She is seeking to raise $5,000 to cover half of her living expenses and airfare for the year. A generous non-profit has agreed to anonymously match everything raised via this fundraising campaign, which will help her to reach the total cost of living for her year in Guatemala.

Primeros Pasos currently serves over 7,000 patients a year from indigenous villages in the valley outside of Queztaltenango, almost all of whom would have no access to health care if it weren’t for this organization. According to the UN Development Program, 56% of the population in Guatemala lives under the poverty line, and 81% of rural, indigenous populations live in extreme poverty. I will be working primarily as a Development Associate, helping to write grants and form relationships with US medical and dental schools in order to secure a continuous flow of medical professionals and supplies to the clinic. I also aim to become involved with the Women’s Health program, as that is a particular area of interest of mine. You can read more about the organization here.