Sacred Valley Health/ Ayni Wasi’s inaugural class of promotoras (community health workers) recently completed their final capacitación in the core promotora training program. The eight promotoras matriculated into the community health worker program two years ago, when they were elected by their respective communities to become community-recognized health representatives. Since then, they have attended monthly…
Month: August 2014
If you give a child a camera
Let me introduce you to our interim photographer. This is Promotora Luzmila’s daughter. She comes with us on house visits, during which Luzmila reaches out to her neighbors, offering them health advice and providing treatment when appropriate. The thing is, Luzmila’s daughter—like any other 6-year-old I know—gets bored watching her mother work all day. To…
Icy weather and a warm reception in Kelccanka
As the sleet started falling on the tin roof of the community meeting room, Escolastica leaned over to me and whispered, “Jenny, I don’t think we’re going to get down [from the community] today. We’ll have to start out early tomorrow morning.” We were two hours into Kelccanka’s General Assembly, still waiting for the promotoras…
Promotora Program fosters leadership and builds local capacity
In nearly all of our posts, we write about our promotoras (community health workers) that live and work in the mountain communities surrounding Ollantaytambo. We discuss their trainings, the health interventions they’ve led, and what it’s like to spend time in their homes. In this post, I’d like to backtrack a bit and explain why…
Sleeping over in Rayan and Marcuray
For children, sleepovers are rites of passage. For SVH/ Ayni Wasi community coordinators, sleepovers in remote villages are a great way to build strong relationships with our promotoras (community health workers). Exchanging cultural customs, sleeping on alpaca furs, and sharing hot cups of boiled fava beans make cultural barriers dissolve into the Andean winter winds. Last…
INTO THE VALLEY 