Diabetes and Cancer with the POOR

We are coming to the end of the year 2013.  Our Clinic was founded in 1966.  So many years have passed.  We have been present to the PEOPLE in their lives and sufferings. Our very first clinic had a dirt floor, no light or running water.  Myself and another young nurse came as Papal Volunteers for Latin America.  Our commitment was for three years...I have witnessed many changes, progress and suffering. In the year of 2014, we are witnessing, a decrease in funds for our work, as our Diocese struggles with economic issues. The Coffee harvest and salary for field workers is unjust; there is hunger and disease among the POOR.  The Diseases are more complex and costly to cure.  Diabetes is pandemic in the World. Guatemala has over 1 MILLION Diabetics, according to the newspaper report on November 14, 2013.  Cancer is also diagnosed more frequently in the Clinica Maxeña but treatment centers for the POOR do not exist.  The Clinica Maxeña also performs Papanicolau exams and has succeeded in arresting this cancer, with chemotherapy and radiation, in a few women; others have not survived, following minimal treatment provided by the Center for Cancerlogia, INCAN, in Guatemala City.  INCAN is the only CANCER CENTER in a Country of 13 Million population!  A Project for the NEEDY, of Sister Anna, ANGEL PROJECT, helps defray costs for Cancer patients of the Clinic. . Today, a special BREAST cancer patient with Lung metastasis, Maria, will be buried.  She spent the last night in our clinic with oxygen, before dying in our car, as we took her home to be with her family.
Here she stands in her kitchen, over a year ago.  The treatment did give her more time to be with her six children, for awhile longer.

Thank You for your interest in the People of Guatemala and the CLINICA MAXEÑA!