Guanal, Chiapas, Mexico

The most remote area Medic Outpost has travelled in Mexico, Guanal is in far southern Chiapas a few kilometers from the Guatemalan border. This area in the heart of the Lacondon jungle has been a stronghold of the Zapatista movement for over 25 years; a brutal rebellion between the rural people and the government in 1994 cut them off from access to medical care and services until 2015. The only way to reach these isolated villages was by air. A muddy dirt road connects Guanal Village, home to around 1,000 people, to Comitan – it was built roughly four years ago and the trip takes roughly ten hours! The larger area is home to around 3,000 people and is served by a single doctor who comes for a few days every five weeks to a run-down clinic in Guanal. 

Medic Outpost conducted first responder training for the “promotorios” in the community – these are clinic volunteers with no training who often dispense medications in addition to volunteering to man the clinic! Medic Outpost taught eight volunteers a full-day class as well as helping to organize the clinic pharmacy. Assisting the promotorios with organization and cleaning the clinic, as well as educating on the importance of maintaining a level of cleanliness moving forward rounded out the day’s work.

The promotorios were fantastic – mostly older, well-respected men from the village, though one 16 year old girl, Lucy, attended. She shared with us that she wants to be a doctor but so far has been unable to leave the village.

No photography is permitted outside the clinic compound, on order of the Zapatista officials, though we were able to take a few photos of the group we trained. At the close of our training, we left these eager students with two full first responder kids – one will stay in the clinic, and the other will go to the next village across the river where two of the students live.