Traditional Healers get Some Help
Tiny mountain pueblos are scattered along the winding narrow mountain roads in the Eastern part of the Mexican state of Hidalgo. People lead a very simple life there and often struggle with a lack of employment and medical care. The Medic Outpost mission in this remote area is address the distance and difficulties to access emergency care. In partnership with the Hidalgo Ministry of Health, Medic Outpost is taking healthcare training and equipment to the people. Our hope is to lessen the severity and mortality of illness and injury by teaching the communities to treat and recognize conditions that serious or even fatal. It is not an easy task but certainly one that is worth the effort.
This trip was to three remote villages. Tamalcuatitla, San Felipe de Orizatlan, and Huejutla. Huejutla del Reyes is the major town in the area with the traditional midwives and healers being transported there from surrounding villages such as Texitla, Sitlan, and Santa Ana. Our first training was for community first responder in the village of Tamalcuatitla We had 16 community members come down from the surrounding mountains and a few were promoters. Promoters are volunteers who try to help out in the event of an emergency. Often these promoters have no first aid training and no equipment. Language is one of the many challenges in this remote region. Our trainings had to be translated from Spanish into Nahuatl, which is the ancient Aztec language. A special thanks to the Ministry nurses of the region for making that happen.
Our next stop was in Huejutla de Reyes for midwife training. These amazing ladies were brought down from their remote villages by the Ministry of Health. Collectively, these traditional midwives have delivered hundreds of babies. Unfortunately, many of these “parteras”, still cling to some traditional beliefs on what babies will survive and which ones will not. Medic Outpost training and the equipment we provide such as bag valve masks and stethoscopes will allow these midwives to make better decisions. Many newborns will be saved that would have otherwise been lost with traditional thinking.
The last stop on this training tour was the village of San Felipe de Orizatlan. This village was farther up in the mountains than the others and its streets were narrow and winding. The weather this week was unusually hot, in the mid 90’s, and our training was outside. Another group of traditional midwives spent the day with us and learned some very important techniques that they all agreed would save lives.
We finished up with a ceremony honoring our 5th pasantes group in Huetjutla. Pasantes are medical interns that are working for a year in remote villages. Medic Outpost partners with them to teach our community first responder program in their villages. This group trained 726 community members in 3 months. It was a huge success with Dr. Victor Ramirez training over 250 people.
My trip back to Mexico City takes about 5 and half hours from Huetjutla. Then it is on a plane and back to Houston. The tough and expensive part is the drive back to the World HQ of Medic Outpost in Terlingua, Texas. That 10 hours in the car is rough. It is made easier however when you know that the program to save remote newborns and others in the community is working.
If you would be interested in joining us on a trip to help these unique and amazing people then please contact me.
