Clinic, Learning Facility: The HEED Center

The June Russel-Glennon Health, Education and Environmental Development Center (“HEED Center”) building was completed in November 2004, and opened part-time in the spring of 2005. It was opened five days a week October 1, 2005, as an operating clinic on its ground floor and as a pre-school in its second-floor classroom, hosting 34 children. The preschool moved in early 2006 to a separate Xela Aid-funded facility. The HEED Center is located in the community of San Martín Chiquito, 60 miles from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. In San Martin Chiquito, the new center has now been named "Centro de Apoyo Comunal," or Community Assistance Center.

At full operation, this needed facility will serve 30,000 people in San Martín Chiquito and surrounding communities as a medical clinic; health and environmental education learning and literacy center, and as a community gathering place. It is currently serving as a sanitary birthing facility to a group of 40 midwives who jointly deliver approximately 2,800 children each year (birthing takes place in dirt-floor homes). It serves as the Xela Aid base of operations during visits and clinics, and is open from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Monday-Friday with emergency services available on-call.

The HEED Center facility includes medical, dental, optometry, maternity, and general medicine  facilities, and staff includes a facility director, medical doctor, nurse-receptionist, master midwife, and live-in "guardián." Volunteer groups are welcomed to visit the facility during a pre-arranged visit [contact Leslie Baer]. The facility is in the process of being fully equipped, largely with the help of Direct Relief International, one of Xela Aid's founding partners. Additionally, there is a pharmacy, a learning room where capacitaciones, trainings are held monthly on topics spanning midwifery and hygiene to candle-making and sewing. There are also bathrooms and showering facilities, hot water, storage, and guardian's quarters complete with a full traditional kitchen [added July 2006].

Each month, our  clinic serves hundreds of the poorest of Guatemala's poor and costs just about $3,000 to run. With a good business plan in place that creates revenues through sublet to a laboratory, and a modest stream of income from exams offered at Q10 (a tenth of the normal average cost), the clinic is already partially self-sustaining. Prescriptions are filled free of charge. Help us keep the clinic open by becoming a sustaining member of the KCO Club. Read more at KCO Club or DONATE NOW and we'll add you to our family of sponsors. Your gift will save lives. Thank you.