Umpqua Community College Students Teach Basic Health in Guatemala

By Marissa Harshman, The News-Review

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Even Guatemalan women with nearly a dozen children may not understand the female reproductive system or how they conceived children, according to a group of nursing students who recently visited the country. But the group of Umpqua Community College students and instructors may have helped change that by providing basic health education to women and children in several Guatemalan villages last December.

The group of first- and second-year nursing students, UCC nursing program director Sandy Hendy and two other instructors traveled to Quetzaltenango — the second largest city in Guatemala — in mid-December. The group used laminated posters covered with drawings and words in Spanish to educate women and children about respiratory disease, the female reproductive system, nutrition, personal hygiene and dental care.

The trip came about after one second-year student, 23-year-old Ashley Scherman, approached Hendy for information about overseas trips. Hendy suggested Scherman and other interested students travel to Quetzaltenango, where Hendy’s daughter, Lara Hendy, is coordinating a project to build stoves in homes.

The goal of Safe Stove Project is to provide homes with stoves that properly ventilate smoke so families are not cooking by open fires inside their homes. Pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder are two of the leading causes of death for children and women in Guatemala, and both conditions are directly related to indoor smoke and fire use, according to the project’s Web site, www.firstgiving.com/safestovelara.

The team from UCC helped build stoves, but focused mainly on teaching women and kids how to take care of their bodies. Every day for more than a week, the team traveled to nearby villages to provide education about various topics and explained how the villagers’ lifestyles affect the quality of their lives.

“It’s definitely a day-to-day life,” Scherman said. “You don’t think about the consequences.”

The students taught the women and kids basic health care, such as how to thoroughly wash their hands with soap and water to prevent the spread of parasites and colds, said 29-year-old Amber Parker, a second-year nursing student.

Parker spent much of her time in the villages teaching about dental hygiene. The Winston woman used a large model of teeth and an oversized toothbrush to demonstrate the proper method for removing plaque from teeth.

The students also educated the villagers about proper nutrition. Many of the families don’t have easy access to a variety of fruits and vegetables, so their diets consist of products made from corn, said 21-year-old Jen Reedal, also a second-year nursing student. The students taught the women and children about the food pyramid and the number of needed servings from each category.

In Guatemala, diets contain quite a bit of sugar and other sweets, Reedal said. Women even put sugar-loaded coffee in bottles and give it to their babies, she said. The students explained the ill effects of having a diet rich in sugar, and urged the women to give their babies a popular corn and rice drink instead of coffee, Reedal said.

The students also spent a significant amount of time talking about the female reproductive system. They taught the women about their menstrual cycles and how women get pregnant, facts that many of the women — who ranged in age from their teens to upper 40s — had never known. Scherman said the women gasped once they understood.

“It just clicked,” she said. “They were like, ‘That’s how I got pregnant.’”

The students said they hope their trip will make others think about how they can help people in need, which doesn’t require traveling to other countries. Scherman said the people in the Guatemalan villages, even those who had very little, always helped their neighbors. She hopes that message will spread to Douglas County, and people will lend a helping hand to fellow community members.

“That’s something we can learn from those people,” she said. “We don’t do that enough.”