Physical Health Guatemala Project #54825

Healthy Mothers Program

by Mayanza, Inc.

Project Report | Mar 3, 2023
New Classes of Healthy Mothers for 2023

By Jami Smith | CEO

2023 is off to a great start for Mayanza. With the new year, comes our new Healthy Mothers groups. This year we continue with a group from the rural community of Tzanchaj and have added the inaugural class from the community of Chu'ul. We have recruited 12 women from each community to become empowered about how to improve their health through education about nutrition, disease prevention, stress management and weekly exercise classes.

Since most women don't have exercise clothing or shoes, we took the women on a shopping spree where they each were given a shirt, pants, sports bra, socks and sneakers. Now they are ready to exercise together!

In addition to the weekly education and exercise classes, we have a monthly speaker series with local experts in nutrition, mental health and other topics who teach in the local Maya language in a culturally competent manner. Already this year we have had some guest speakers, including Vilma, a Reproductive Health Educator, who talked about menstruation and sexual health and Amalia, from Tinta Maya, who taught the women about natural medicine and medicinal herbs in their environment.

More updates to come as we move further into 2023. Thank you for your support of this program! We could not provide the education and resource to these women without your financial support.

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Nov 4, 2022
Updates from the Healthy Mothers Program

By Jami Smith | Co-founder and CEO

Exercise class for mothers

As we approach the end of the year, we are also approaching the end of the Healthy Mothers program for 2022. We are proud of the accomplishments of these women over the past year.

20 women completed the program - 10 from the community of Tzanchaj and 10 from Panul.
Weekly education sessions with our health educators on a variety of health topics such as stress management, reproductive health, hygiene, nutrition, exercise and disease prevention. We also had guest speakers who are experts from the community including a psychologist, sexual health educator, expert on local plants for medicinal use and a chef.
Weekly group exercise sessions with our exercise trainers.
Biannual health screenings from the Mayanza team, including screening for diabetes, anemia and monitoring body indices.
Enrichment for the children of the mothers in the program: Each week, while the mothers learn and exercise, their children receive enrichment activities including math, reading, art, music and creative play from a certified teacher. This allows the mothers to focus on themselves and the children to benefit from this time with a teacher.

We look forward to celebrating their accomplishments with a ceremony and awarding their certificate of completion when the Mayanza leadership team returns in March.

If you would like to help us continue this important work, please make a donation today. As the holidays approach, please visit our shop to purchase a unique, handcrafted gift that helps to support the women of our programs.

Weekly health class at Panul

Our team provided health screening in July

Sexual health and reproduction class

Enrichment for the children of the women

Links:

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Jul 8, 2022
Updates from our Healthy Mothers Programs

By Jami Smith | CEO

Isa is a new member of our team!

We are just about half way through our Healthy Mothers Programs in 2022 and we have lots of news to share with you!

We are excited to welcome a new health educator who has joined our team, Isa Ajtujal. Isa will spend time with the children of the mothers in the program, teaching them about health topics and playing educational games. This allows the mothers to focus on their education and exercise classes without worrying about their children.
Each month, we have a guest speaker from the community speak to the women. This month we had Juanita Chiviliu, a licensed psychologist from Sanitago, speak to the women about mental health and ways to cope with stress in their daily lives. Another recent guest was Chef Gregioro, who taught the women how to cook with healthy foods and then shared a delicious, healthy meal with the mothers.
Our Garden Project team work year round to plant, cultivate and harvest healthy food for the families of this group. The women participate in the planting and maintenance of the gardens to learn life long skills and then enjoy the bountiful harvest.
Since we target the most vulnerable women in the community for this project, most do not have appropriate shoes, clothing or undergarments for exercise. We provided each women with a pair of sneakers, exercise clothing, socks and a sports bra. Being prepared with comfortable clothes for exercise goes a long way toward engagment and enjoyment of exercise!

The Healthy Mothers program works to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goal #3 of Good Health and Well-being. We hope that you will continue to support our work in Santiago. Next week begins our July Donation Campaign and we need your support to continue this important work.

Please follow us on social media to learn more about the impact of our work with vulnerable mothers and families of Santiago.

Juanita talks to the mothers about mental health.

Food for families from the Garden Project!

New exercise clothes for the mothers.

Program works on Sustainable Development Goal #3.

Links:

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