DGH believes in accompaniment and community empowerment. We only work in areas where we have been invited and welcomed by the communities. We also believe in participatory investigation, which we define as investigating with the communities what their health needs are and then working with them to help meet those needs. These strongly held beliefs have to led to a variety of projects, illustrating that "health" encompasses a lot more than the absence of disease and the availability of medical treatment. See everywhere DGH has worked over the years. Learn about the areas where DGH works. Learn more about how DGH works by reading the Tenth Anniversary Retrospective (PDF)

In Argentina In El Salvador In Guatemala In Mexico In Nicaragua In Uganda In the United States

In Argentina

DGH recently began working in Las Lomitas, a small rural indigenous community located in Formosa, one of the poorest and most isolated provinces of Argentina. There we have partnered with community health workers, physicians, and members of the Pilaga and Wichi indigenous groups to focus on resolving health problems at home, using the community's own knowledge and traditions. The work emphasizes a holistic approach to health—recognizing that health is not something that comes from doctors, but rather a state of well-being that includes maintaining autonomy, dignity, and human rights.

With this vision in mind, DGH volunteers are working with Dr. Gabriela Acevedo, a physician who has been working in Las Lomitas for several years, to design a School for Health Multipliers in Las Lomitas. The school is designed to train people from each community so that they are able to "multiply" their knowledge in their own communities. Through a series of workshops and trainings, the communities focus on specific health topics such as nutrition, anemia and parasites. Based on the philosophy of transformative popular educations, participants are encouraged to explore and develop their own knowledge base, rather than simply waiting for health care professionals to tell them what to do.

In El Salvador

In Cabañas:

Much has changed since 1999 when DGH first responded to a call for support from Brenda Hubbard, the Coordinator of the Rehabilitation Center. We first gave financial support in the form of a stipend for the Health Promoter who provided the day to day services at the Center. Those consisted of respiratory therapy, physical therapy and body work. The intervention not only took place at the Center but also in the home. We also sent a steady supply of medications and minimum equipment (nebulizers in particular). Last year, a DGH Physical Therapist volunteer plaid a key role in strengthening the knowledge and skills of the health promoter and the scope of services offered.

In 2001, our first volunteer spent in all a period of 10 months in Santa Marta. This presence allowed us to develop direct ties to the community and to assess where our help was most needed. The most consistent support DGH has provided is in the form of volunteer medical students and other health care providers to work alongside the Salvadoran Physician of the Ministry of Health Clinic and the other staff, some of them Health Promoters. A Public Health professional volunteer conducted a community-based project with youth to study practices around pesticide use and explore possible health effects. This project was seen as the first step in a long term initiative to offer alternatives to the current use of pesticide by promoting alternative agricultural practices.

Many of the participants in the Healthy Agriculture Project are also members of COCOSI, a group of youth who came together to educate themselves and their peers on the issue of HIV and other STI's. DGH has also helped support the group which, since its creation in 1999, has continuously expanded its work to include issues of gender roles, sexuality, domestic violence and the economic, social and political factors that put people at risk of contracting the disease.

More and more, the focus of DGH's support here has been with youth and education. It started with the individual financial contributions to support the community-based High School Project from the part of DGH volunteers who had been to Santa Marta. Now other volunteers are providing further training and education to the Popular teachers. This year, 18 of the 42 graduates from the first graduating class of the local High School are studying at the University in San Salvador. A joint effort between different organizations and individuals is underway to develop a North-South project that would benefit youth in Santa Marta and in the US. It is not only about money but also about sharing experience and knowledge and joining in the fight to make education accessible and relevant to all. We are talking about globalization from below


The Struggle for Education in El Salvador, DGH Reporter, Fall/Winter 2005
El Salvador: Changing from Within, DGH Reporter, Fall/Winter 2004
DGH in El Salvador: The Health Risks of Pesticide Use, DGH Reporter, Fall/Winter 2002
Rehabilitation in El Salvador, DGH Reporter, Spring/Summer 2002



In Morazán:

DGH was born out of work that began in the communities of Estancia, El Salvador in the post-civil war period of the early 1990's. Dedicated volunteers in the area came together to form DGH in order to continue supporting the work they began in these communities. DGH has been accompanying the people of Estancia since then, helping to build a bridge connecting the communities to the rest of the world, and taking part in projects in the areas of health, education, environment, agriculture, income generation and community development. In the area of health we have seen nutrition improve dramatically; we have also seen the near-elimination of preventable diseases such as goiter through comprehensive, community-based efforts.

In 2001, members of the community joined together to form La Asociación de Campesinos para el Desarrollo Humano (Peasants for Human Development, CDH), which was officially recognized as a Salvadoran nonprofit organization August of 2004. Its mission is "to bring together, strengthen, and organize our communities in order to find solutions to the common problems we face, bringing about comprehensive human development." Today, DGH supports CDH as it runs the local community health center and 6 early childhood development centers as well as broader community health and development projects.


Photos from Estancia
Health as Reconciliation: A Key to Post-War Rebuilding in El Salvador, Developing Ideas Digest, January 1995
Bridging One Gap from Sickness to Health
Visions from Within DGH Reporter, Spring/Summer 2005
Musings from the Home of the Great Volcano Chaparestiki DGH Reporter, Fall/Winter 2004
Promoter Profile: Ramiro Cortez-Argueta, DGH Reporter, Fall 1998
Educating the Children, DGH Reporter, Spring 1998
Bridging the Gaps, DGH Reporter, Summer 1997

In Guatemala

DGH supports the work of FUNDAESPRO (Fundación Esfuerzo y Prosperidad), an organization of women working in community health and child development in poor marginalized neighborhoods. We have been accompanying a community education project for AIDS prevention in Guatemala City. We have also been supporting community health work in indigenous communities in the Gautemala-Mexico border area in a project to train health promoters and introduce latrines and ecological stoves.

In Mexico

Since 1998, Doctors for Global Health (DGH) has worked with Hospital San Carlos in Altamirano, Chiapas, Mexico to provide both hospital and community-based health care in Chiapas. DGH organizes volunteer health professionals for Hospital San Carlos and a Mexican physician who coordinates the community health program of the hospital. He regularly travels to several communities to teach and work with health promoters.

Support the project by buying crafts hand-made by women in the communities.

DGH was a founding member of the Mexico Solidarity Network (MSN). MSN is committed to raising awareness and money for human rights groups in Chiapas. (See DGH Supports the Mexico Solidarity Network, DGH Reporter, Spring 1999.)


Photos from Chiapas
DGH Profile: Juan Manuel Canales, DGH's in-country coordinator in Chiapas, DGH Reporter, Summer/Winter 2003
September 2004 Reflections on work in Chiapas from international DGH volunteer Stewart Anderson
Hookworm Infection and Anemia in Adult Women in Rural Chiapas, Mexico, Salud Pública de México, March/april 2003 (PDF)
November 2001 Letter from Chiapas
DGH Profile: Dreaming Life, health promoter in Chiapas, DGH Reporter, Winter 2000-2001
January 2001 Letter from Chiapas from Linnea Capps
June 1999 Letter from Chiapas from Linnea Capps
Report from the Field: DGH in Chiapas, DGH Reporter, Spring 1999
DGH Supports the Mexico Solidarity Network, DGH Reporter, Spring 1999
DGH in Action: Chiapas, DGH Reporter, Summer 1997

In Nicaragua

Atención Primaria en Salud (APS)

DGH is supporting the work of Atención Primaria en Salud (APS), a charitable nongovernmental organization founded by Dr. Saul Contreras in 1996 in response to the enormous need for basic, appropriate, and affordable health care throughout Nicaragua. The organization operates both an urban and rural health program. The urban program consists of five clinics in Managua that provide basic health care, laboratory analysis, and medicines to people who otherwise would not be able to afford them.

The rural health program consists of training and supporting health promoters who provide primary care to the more than 200,000 people living in the eight municipalities (Altagracia, Bonanza, El Crucero, La Conquista, Moyogalpa, Mulukuku, San Francisco Libre and Tipitapa).

The health promoter trainings consist of classes for one full day each week for eight months. In the very remote, isolated communities, the trainings are more intensive, i.e. one weekend a month for eight months. Themes covered in the trainings include maternal and child health, basic illnesses, community development, public health, and a few special diseases such as diabetes.

The promoters, the majority of whom are women, are selected from their communities to participate. One of the many positive outcomes is that these women have become leaders in their communities and are initiating public health projects and cooperatives. As a result of their training, they provide a modicum of preventive and basic curative medicine.

Dr. Contreras visits the health promoters monthly to discuss patients they have seen and the type of care they provided; they share knowledge and experiences, thus reinforcing the information they've acquired from the initial training. At these meetings, the promoters also purchase more basic medicines for their communities.

In Managua

DGH works with a community association in Barrio Edgard Lang Sacasa, which strives to improve conditions in this very poor neighborhood in the heart of Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. The Barrio is named after a Sandanista leader who died in the war. The Asociación de Promoción Popular Casa Comúnal Edgard Lang Sacasa (APROPOCACO - Association for Popular Promotion Communal House Edgard Lang Sacasa), a neighborhood association, has worked hard to establish a library, a pre-school, an arts & crafts women's center, and a typing class. DGH recently supported the startup of a clinic and pharmacy at the Center, including the hiring of a Nicaraguan doctor to attend patients. This project seeks to address one of the most insidious problems in medical care facing Nicaraguans at present: the general unaffordability of prescription medicines. The new Clinic-Pharmacy has enthusiastic support from the community. It is innovative (with a revolving, near-cost pharmacy), but will be a very spare operation. The neighborhood APROPOCACO Board is quite good and alert to the complexities of this operation. Their logo is a turtle and their motto is "Only by sticking your neck out can you take steps forward!"

DGH is also working with the Acahual Womens Clinic in the Barrio Acahualinca helping to serve the health needs of this impoverished area. As government health operations have retreated, the health education, clinic and low cost pharmacy of the Association Promotion y Desarrollo de la Mujer Acahual have become vital and lean pathway of health care. DGH is helping to staff this clinic.

In Tipitapa:

DGH works with Casa de la Mujer and Cede Central Promoviendo el Desarrollo Humano Sostenible. DGH began to support work in Tipitapa after Hurricane Mitch hit the area. Thousands of displaced families continue to live in and near Tipitapa. Tipitapa is also the home of many of the persons, mostly women, who labor in oppressive conditions of the nearby maquiladoras, the multinational assembly plants. The Casa de la Mujer supports a legal counselor and a therapist for abused women. DGH has assisted with training of health promoters and other health initiatives.


Photos
DGH Profile: Dr. Saul Contreras, DGH Reporter, Fall/Winter 2004
Nicaragua Projects Update, DGH Reporter, Fall/Winter 2004
Nicaraguan Volcano, DGH Reporter, Spring/Summer 2002
Human Rights Around the World: Nicaragua, DGH Reporter, Fall 1998

In Uganda

After years of assisting medical education at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) in Mbarara, Uganda – by sending Resident and Faculty volunteers from DGH to work and teach on the inpatient wards of the teaching hospital – the focus of DGH involvement has recently shifted to the underserved and understaffed rural communities served by MUST.

Over the past two years, DGH, joined by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in New York, has established multiple projects in Kisoro, in the beautiful but remote far-southwest corner of Uganda, a few miles from the borders of both the Congo and Rwanda. The current projects are:

• Village Health Worker (VHW) Project with 40 VHWs in 20 villages surrounding Kisoro
• Malnutrition Rehabilitation Center
• Cervical Cancer Screening Initiative
• DGH Volunteer Project

The goal of the DGH Volunteer Project is to help care for patients in the chronically under-staffed Kisoro District Hospital, which employs three young physicians for the entire hospital (i.e. Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics-Gynecology, and Surgery wards) and a busy outpatient department seeing 150 patients a day.

Volunteer board-certified physicians and nurses are encouraged to apply for a minimum stay of one-month (preferably longer), with housing provided.


Photos from Uganda
To Sing of Aids in Uganda, DGH Reporter, Spring/Summer 2005
Uganda AIDS Conference, DGH Reporter, Fall/Winter 2003
Two Months in the "Pearl of Africa", DGH Reporter, Spring/Summer 2002

In the United States

DGH is co-convener of the USA circle of the People's Health Movement.

Volunteers who have visited and worked with DGH abroad give presentations on community-based health care and Human Rights to students in universities, elementary and high schools, community organizations, as well as government and church groups. (See DGH Locally: Talking to Children, DGH Reporter, Fall 1998.)

Volunteers operate an administrative office and handle a newsletter, e-mail communications, and this web site. Volunteers also coordinate donations of computers and office equipment. Much of the computer, software and office equipment used in El Salvador have been donated.

Volunteers identify and collect medical and education supplies for use in El Salvador and other developing countries. (See our list of supplies needed in Chiapas and El Salvador.)

Volunteer professionals contributed time and resources to complete the organization and incorporation of DGH. These individuals and others continue to provide advice and services to DGH.

DGH is on the Board (as an organization) of the Center for Community Responsive Care, Inc. CCRC is a national group promoting preventive medicine and education of health and other professionals in Community Oriented Primary Care.

In 1998, DGH sponsored a Poetry Contest to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, as well as to draw attention to the still ardent need to fulfill its promise. All entries had to be based on the theme of "Promoting health and human rights with those who have no voice." We received many wonderful poems, making the task of choosing winners a difficult one for our distinguished panel of judges. Our thanks to all who shared their verse with us and our congratulations to the 14 winners. Then, in 2001, DGH sponsored a Photography Contest to address the same theme with the goal of illustrating the need for universal healthcare. The winners were announced at the DGH General Assembly in July and everyone attending was impressed and inspired by the quality and humanity of the photos submitted.

A lot of volunteer time and work goes into the publishing of the DGH Reporter, from those who write articles, edit and design the newsletter, to those who fold, stamp, and mail the thousands of copies that go out twice a year. The DGH newsletter aims not just to keep DGH friends and supporters informed about our work, but also to keep them abreast of important human rights issues around the world and inspired with the arts that touch our lives.

Past work locations: Honduras Nigeria Peru