Greetings from Guatemala and many thanks for your recent gift. I am grateful for your continued generosity which helps continue our many projects in salud here in the rural areas of San Marcos. I just added two new patients with Parkinsons disease to the group. Now we have 8 or so. It is rewarding to see them walk back in without assistance after they begin to take their medicines regularly. Often the cost of the medicines has been the problem for them so they take it occasionally or an inadequate dosage. Most are unable to work because of their tremor. One of the new patients is a woman who asked for a wheelchair also. I checked to make sure that we had one for her and said yes. She began to cry and kissed my hand saying that God had placed us in her camino.
We continue the improved stove project. We just placed another 37 stoves in 3 different communities of the coastal region. Interest is high as the cost of firewood keeps going up. The stoves help to decrease their use of firewood by more than half as it is an insulated unit with a small firebox. The chimney carries the smoke outside the kitchen so the woman isn’t breathing in smoke while she is preparing the meal. Attached are a couple of photos of the arrival of the stoves in one of our communities with the health promoter overseeing the distribution. The technico from the company that makes the stoves assembles one stove as a demonstration so that the families who are receiving them see how it is done.
We also continue our assistance to people on renal dialysis. I have a group of five right now. Three are young adults who began as pediatric patients. Two are on hemodialysis and the other is still on peritoneal dialysis. The government provides the dialysis but not the medicines nor the bus fare to get to the renal unit in Guatemala City. Two are siblings so you can imagine the struggle of the mother to take care of both of them and get them to the city for their dialysis appointments. Many thanks for all that you do so that these projects continue to help the rural poor of San Marcos.
Gratefully,
Sr. Mary Lou Daoust
