Here are two of the great volunteers we had this evening helping us assemble all the supplies for the medical kits. On the left is Kathleen Phelps and on the right is Dianna Whitaker who came along with seven other volunteers which made the work go much faster! We sorted hundreds of supplies into 20 medical kits to prepare for the graduation on Friday. We enjoyed tamales while we worked and in four or five hours had most of the kits assembled.
Free Care for Those Who Need it Most
In addition to delivering the education course to Tia’s Promotoras, our partners at UAG’s PMC offer free health care consultations, treatment and medicines to the poorest of the region. Many crates full of medical supplies arrive along with the brigade. You can see here the students and professors in the traditional PMC blue vests consulting with two elderly villagers from Los Palos Altos, Jalisco.
First Skills Practiced on Dr. Rico
Some of the most important skills are learned first and Dr. Francisco Rico from Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara’s (UAG) Programa de Medicina en la Comunidad offers his arm and his teaching skills. The Promotoras in training hit the ground running today! They learned how to take temperatures, blood pressure and how to do a preliminary assessment on the patients who are also their neighbors. There will be 22 new Tia Promotoras at the end of the week, bringing the grand total to 120! More pictures and updates to come…
Practice Supplies are Packed and Ready to Go!
All our practice supplies are ready to go. On top of the big blue box are bandages, IV supplies, ampules of saline solution and other real medical items for the Promotoras to use. They will practice on each other under the observation of the great PMC brigade of approximately 40 people, including students, doctors and medical school professors.
The big blue box contains air mattresses and 30 manuals for the Promotoras, called “Donde No Hay Doctor” published by the Hesperian Foundation. Next to the box is a large blue bag containing CPR practice dummies, three adult and one child. We will leave to meet the brigade bus with these items at 5:30 tomorrow morning.
Preparing for Project Next Week
This week, Tia and their friends at the Community Medicine Program at UAG are preparing for our project next week in Ixtlahuacan. While there, we stopped at a marvelous restaurant for lunch called El Minimo. Above is Dr. Francisco Rico, El Minimo and his wife, Laura Libman and Dr. Michelangelo Marquez. By the end of next week, Tia will have more than 100 Promotoras (Community Health Workers) serving the rural poor of Mexico. Keep checking back as we post pictures of our progress.
Tia Foundation 