The Rotary Club of Lincoln’s 5+ year journey with its Global Grant (GG) 197776 Project, “Eliminating Preventable Maternal & Child Mortality in Guatemala”, began in 2016 when Lincoln Rotarian Alice Klamer travelled to Guatemala with a small group of people associated with International Needs Canada.
International Needs (IN) Canada is committed to helping communities in the developing world reach their full potential through development initiatives, and child sponsorship programs. In collaboration with national and international partners, IN fosters justice, peace and hope in communities devastated by civil conflict, poverty and disease.
In learning that Guatemala places among the 3 worst Latin American countries for maternal and child mortality, Alice returned home determined to garner Rotary’s support for a project, initiated by a professional health team in Guatemala, that targets high risk pregnancies and eliminates preventable deaths of mothers and babies in the Western Highlands Region. To be developed and implemented over 3 years, the project involves educating midwives, mothers, families, and communities on basic health practices to ensure children survive birth and then go on to thrive in life.
Between Spring 2016 and Fall 2018, Alice worked tirelessly to promote awareness of the project and build the partnerships needed to position Lincoln Rotary as the International Club in an application for a Global Grant through The Rotary Foundation (TRF). Key to her success was the organization of 12 Niagara Rotary Clubs (including Lincoln) as a cluster, each contributing $1000 USD to the project. With the Rotary Club of Guatemala Sur as the Host Club, the GG application was submitted and in May 2019, received approval. Finally in January 2020, TRF notified that GG197776 had completed all requirements & payment ($79,493 USD) had been deposited in the project bank account in Guatemala.
The onset of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 set the implementation of the project back about 10 months. However, in Summer 2020, two project leaders were hired to organize the delivery of a training program for midwives in the Health District of Paquip, Chimaltenango, Western Highlands. And, in November 2020, health authorities approved the implementation of the program. Since then, 44 midwives have been in training through a series of modules delivered by Ruby Miranda, supervisor, and Álvaro Bal, facilitator.
MEET RUBY & ÁLVARO
Ruby Miranda is the supervisor of the Midwives' Training Program. She is a licensed nurse with a masters degree in Maternal Newborn and Child Health and other different trainings. Ruby has vast experience working in public health and coordinating health programs for national and international organizations. She also has experience as a professor for nurses and a facilitator for midwives.
Álvaro Bal is the facilitator of the Midwives' Training Program in the Department of Chimaltenango. He is a licensed nurse who has worked in different programs/institutions in this department. He is bilingual Spanish – Kaqchiquel, which is the indigenous language spoken in this area. This is a great advantage, as not all midwives speak Spanish in the rural areas.
During this first phase of this 3-year project, Global Grant (GG) 197776 is funding the salaries of Ruby and Álvaro, their travel expenses and training materials.
MEET INGRID
Ingrid Figueroa liaises with the Rotary Club of Lincoln and ALL organizations involved in the project. Ingrid is in charge of communications and supporting actions between project team members and health authorities. She is also responsible for providing the information to meet TRF Global Grant reporting requirements.
Ingrid's high communication skills are evident in all that she does to be the connection and interpreter between different parties and organizations. Interpreter, not only in the sense of translation between languages, but also in the actual interpretation and delivery of messages so that the different groups involved in a project understand each other and take the required actions to move towards the overall vision.
International Needs has contributed $100,000 to the project, which in part covers the cost of Ingrid's monthly salary ($2000).
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Ingrid’s reports (January & June 2021), including midwives’ training program details and photos, along with Alice and Margaret’s PowerPoint presentation are all available in the Global Grant Project - Guatemala folder on the RCL website. Login to Member Area - go to the Organization heading and click on Documents.
President Brenda adjourned the meeting around 8:50am with the 4-way test.
