Wuqu' Kawoq Goes to Paquip - and I tag along!

One of the many regular projects Wuqu' Kawoq runs is a childhood malnutrition program. A team from made up of doctors, nurses, and volunteers go out to small villages and detect, treat, and keep track of malnourished children. On Thursday, I got to go along with one group on their regular visit to Paquip - a village on the very north-west edge of the municipality of Tecpan. Located at the end of a twisty drive through the mountains, Paquip doesn't show up on Google Maps. But the views are gorgeous.

The view from the health center - with coffee plants in the foreground

Centro de Salud - The health center where Wuqu' Kawoq comes biweekly for health screenings. 

Besides checking for malnutrition, Wuqu' Kawoq was also doing women's health screenings - pap smears and birth control implants, for instance. However, I was sitting in on the children's checkups and didn't see much of the women's visits.

Children under two years of age were brought in by their mothers for height and weight measurements. If any of these children were detected as being unusually low in height or weight, they were brought in for a further consultation with the WK team. If the parent agreed, the child was placed into the malnutrition program. Starting from that day, at every biweekly screening, the parent received personal counseling from the WK health professionals on malnutrition and how to fend it off (not just addressing quantity, but also quality.) Additionally, they would receive food for the malnourished child - beans, eggs, oil, and fortified peanut butter.

On the day I was there, in addition to six of the "regular" malnourished kids, two other severely malnourished children were detected. One case was particularly striking - a tiny two-month old baby falling 3 standard deviations below average height and 4 sd's below average weight, his mother had 8 other kids, but was experiencing lactation failure for the first time with this newest child. WK gave the mother formula and began counseling her immediately. 

A lot of Kaqchikel is spoken in Paquip - it was fascinating getting to hear the language 'in the wild' so to speak. Definitely lots of body parts and food words were thrown around, and I was struck by the high frequency of Spanish lone words/code switching as well. WK works really well with the language situation - they always have at least one speaker on hand who talks to the patients and mothers in their native language. 

I didn't take any pictures of the malnutrition screenings - I didn't feel comfortable asking the women to be photographed when they were at a doctor's appointment. But after the screenings were over, I continued to tag along with the WK people to the nutrition class - where I did take pictures!

The nutrition classes took place in the village at the home of a local lady. The four participants are pictured above. From the left: Maria, Rosa, Francisca, and Sara. Each of them is a mother with a malnourished child, and enrolled in the malnourishment program with WK

To start off the class, the women help prepare a meal that they will all eat later. The day's menu was a chicken dish with onion, tomato, and bay leaf and a side dish of boiled acorn squash (guicoy)

Yoli, the instructor, (far right) teaches about the nutrients in the ingredients in Kaqchikel, focusing especially on important nutrients for pre- & post-natal health.

As the dishes simmer on the ceramic plates on the wood-fire stove and the house heats up, the lesson continues outside. Yoli puts special emphasis on the importance of feeding children normal food in addition to breast-milk after 6 months. Over-breast feeding

To complete the nutrition program, the women attend five classes. From talking to Grace and others at WK, they have noticed that the how well the women do in the classes noticeably corresponds to faster growth improvement of their children. By educating these women in addition to providing them with support through health care and food supplies, WK is pursuing the root of malnutrition in addition to its outward manifestations.

It was the last of the five classes for the program - here are the women after receiving certificates of completion!

I am so grateful to Wuqu' Kawoq for allowing me to come to Paquip and observe their projects. It was an eye-opening day - I'm left with immense awe and appreciation for the hard work and dedication of all the amazing people who make it possible.

Kaqchikel word of the day: aq'omanel (a-Q'O-ma-NELH) - doctor. Involves the fun consonant [q'] a back of the throat click, aka glottalized uvular implosive.