| With the
help of colleagues and many other interested persons, as well
as a new model for intervention, Mayan Medical Aid will change
the way in which people give, receive, and use humanitarian
aid. |
 |
Mayan Medical Aid was founded in 2004, with the express purpose of funding medically related projects to benefit the Maya of Guatemala. The project is the culmination of a long-standing dream of Craig A. Sinkinson, M.D.
Dr. Sinkinson's desire, since finishing his medical training, has been to provide high-quality health care in places where such health care is non-existent or where what health care is available is inadequate. After many years of planning, he finally was able to begin to implement the dream in Santa Cruz La Laguna, Guatemala.
Santa Cruz is a municipality consisting of approximately 7,000 poor and uneducated people in six pueblos: Santa Cruz, Jaibalito, Tzununá, Pajomel, Chuitzanchaj, and Laguna Seca. These pueblos are located on the North shore of the magnificently beautiful Lake Atitlán.
At present, however, MMA has increased its services to include approximately 20,000 people. The additional patients come from two other communities, which also are on the North shore of the Lake: San Marcos and San Pablo.
The participation of medical students, residents, nurses, undergrads, and others fund the project. These participants pay a fee, which covers the cost of the medicines, supplies, personnel, and transportation they use to help to provide medical services. Patients do not pay for either the consultations or the essential medicines MMA provides.
Although the cost of participating in MMA's program is higher than for other programs, MMA provides much more to participants from an educational standpoint. Additionally, the beneficial impact these participants have on the communities MMA serves exceeds that of any other program worldwide. Annually, MMA provides nearly; 8,000 consultations with free medicines, and it does so at a cost of only $4 to $5 per patient visit.
For participants, the program includes teaching in Medical Spanish, as well as in Cultural and Clinical Medicine. It is a four-part reiterative process. What participants learn in the didactic sessions and by using MMA's print, electronic, and online teaching materials is what they use in the clinics. Each aspect reinforces the others. As such, participants learn to speak Spanish rapidly, and they also learn how to actually treat patients and understand what the words the patients say actually mean.
MMA's faculty are physicians, not simply lay people teaching vocabulary words and grammar. And the clinical time is hands-on, not observational. As such, what participants learn is useful and pertinent from start to finish.
But the Clinic in Santa Cruz is only a start. With the help
of colleagues and many other interested persons, as well
as a new model for intervention, Mayan Medical Aid will change
the way in which people give, receive, and use humanitarian
aid.
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