The HEAL Guatemala model is based on a year-long program of Mayan medicine training sessions and clinics. This program will help young Indigenous medicine women participate as traditional health builders and pillars of their community, acquiring and promoting traditional medical knowledge and skills such as midwifery, herbalism, massage, reflexology and chiropractic, all strongly rooted in Mayan ancestral wisdom. These young medicine women will take on the role of community health volunteers who will use their knowledge and healing gifts to help heal their communities. They will also train others in these same skills, rebuilding traditional knowledge and wisdom in Mayan communities devastated by genocide, creating a strong base of Indigenous women’s health leadership in Guatemala.
Northern Quiché is a war-devastated Indigenous area with some of the highest child malnutrition rates in Guatemala and the world. 45 Ixil and K’iche’ Mayan women from Northern Quiché will directly benefit from this training. As community health volunteers, they will conduct free clinics and home visits, train others and build teams to help restore Mayan health and lives. Approximately 4,200 people in Northern Quiché will indirectly benefit from this project.