Ana Lucrecia, born with a cleft lip and palate, was 6 months old in May. She is the fifth child of a day laborer earning two dollars a day to support his entire family, which lives outside the village of Chisec in a rented house that does not have electricity or water. Ana’s two older brothers attend school, which further stretches the family’s finances. They are the kind of typical rural family we at Partner for Surgery assist with surgical care.
In January 2019, Ana was brought to a PfS medical mission in Chisec and admitted to our in-home Cleft Infant Nutrition Program. Since then, our health promoter for the area, Julio Sel, has visited monthly to provide Ana formula, monitor her health, and offer education on maintaining good health for the whole family. Fortunately, Ana qualified in July for the first of the two corrective surgeries she will need.
Ana Lucrecia’s family home.
We are confident that Ana will be one of the 1,000 patients that we expect to receive a surgical procedure this year from one of the 17 teams we support with patients.
Interested in how you can help rural Guatemalans like Catalina? There are lots of ways you can get involved, from a variety of ways to donate or volunteer on a mission to simply helping us get the word out on social media. To learn more, visit our How You Can Help page.
Top Image: Julio Sel, health promoter, shares information with Ana’s mother
