Peace Corps Ecuador, Health Projects Division

GPA collaborates with Peace Corps Ecuador to identify communities that request health education training or support for their own health projects. Working with the national division director, we gain a regional and national perspective on health issues and new grassroots iniatives. To understand the unique needs of individual communities, we coordinate with Peace Corps volunteers, who act as important liaisons between GPA and community members.

Brown University International Emergency Medicine

GPA’s partnership with Brown University’s International Emergency Medicine Fellowship creates opportunities to expand our health promoter curriculum, explore new instructional methods, and add to our highly qualified medical staff. These fellows, who bring expertise in teaching complex procedures, facilitate GPA workshops on topics such as suturing for torn tendons or other critical injuries. Through didactic material and hands-on exercises, they teach experienced participants how to perform emergency procedures with limited equipment and supplies.

Rural Health Education Alliance

To increase the capacity of health promoters and trainers in Azuay Province, GPA has formed a partnership with RHEA, a Bay-Area based organization that has been training community health promoters and supporting maternal health in the region since 2000. Our collaboration helps us connect health promoters and community leaders from different parts of the country so they can share ideas, form their own networks, and empower each other.

Asociación Yashalúm

Since 2004, GPA has collaborated with Asociación Yashalúm, in Yajalon, Chiapas, Mexico, to train Tzeltal-speaking midwives in Western medical techniques. Asociación Yashalum, with funding from the Mission Teaching Foundation, is an indigenous community development organization that supports education and environmental and health awareness in Yajalon and surrounding municipalities. Volunteers at Asociación Yashalum have provided crucial assistance in scheduling, interpretation and teaching support during workshops, managing logistics, and ensuring follow-up between visits by GPA staff. Yashalum coordinators also help GPA staff understand the changing needs of lay practitioners and the complexities of working with the formal and informal health sectors. The partnership has helped midwives gain more recognition from state health institutions and has increased awareness of the important role midwives play in public health.

Global Legacy Programs

Founded in 2008 by Mireille Hanna, Global Legacy Programs seeks to help the poor through the support of sustainable projects with a focus on education, health, and community progress. They have partnered with GPA in Chiapas, Mexico to restore bathroom facilities at Casa Santa Maria, a girls’ dormitory serving up to 50 children who attend local schools on scholarships. GLP also sponsored missions to the Philippines, Guatemala, Peru, and Mexico.

Amazon Partnerships Foundation

Amazon Partnerships Foundation empowers indigenous Kichwa communities that value environmental stewardship through expression of their nature-based culture. APF provides small grants and grassroots consulting for projects designed and implemented by communities. GPA partners with APF in Ecuador, sharing resources and exchanging ideas, to foster greater collaboration and support of health projects in these communities.

Asociación Guatemalteca Pro-Agua y Saneamiento (AG

AGUA is a non-profit organization based in Guatemala City that specializes in water and sanitation projects in the context of rural development. Among other activities, they provide feasibility studies and technical plans for organizations to implement basic infrastructure projects in developing communities. GPA has partnered with AGUA in two communities in Guatemala on assessing local needs and capacity and implementing clean water infrastructure projects.