Citizen’s Council for Health Ixchiguan : The Municipality is our Ally, Guatemala
Walter Flores
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Background
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Ixchiguan is located at an altitude of over 3500 meters. It is a municipality in the province of San Marcos in Guatemala . CEGSS has been working with the citizen‘s council of Ixchiguan for over five years. Oswaldo Munez the president of the Citizen‘s Council of Health rues the fact that over these years the committee membership has constantly been changing as people migrate from this area. But still he is proud that their council has been able to work with the Municipality and the Mayor to bring about some changes. Monitoring conducted by the members of the Citizens Council for Health in June 2010 and May 2011 had brought to light a large number of problems.  
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There was a lack of medicines and beds in the Mother and Child Care Centre and incubators were shabby. Patients were also mistreated by the staff. The status of health services was very poor and the health care provider contracted by the Ministry of Health visited the community only once a month. There was a shortage of medicines at the health posts. There were hardly any services beyond those for children and pregnant women and the rest of the population was ignored. There was no free ambulance transfer of seriously ill. Added to this the city market had poor hygiene. The results of the enquiry were presented before the Municipal Development Council and a number of changes have resulted. The Mayor has also become an ally and is providing some financial resources from the Municipal funds.
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  • The municipal authorities have entered into an agreement with the Spanish development cooperation for an additional 12 health posts.
  • The incubators have been repaired through negotiation with the Director of Maternal and Child Care centre.
  • The ambulance service was re-established in October 2012.
  • The local market place has been cleaned and overall hygiene has improved and municipality has agreed to look into the hygiene of the slaughterhouse.
However, some problems continue. While the local municipal authorities have been cooperative, the Department of Health has not. There are ceilings in budgetary support for the supply of medicines and fuel for ambulance and these cannot be solved locally.
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ABOUT AUTHORS

Walter Flores, is a Steering Committee Member of COPASAH and also Director, CEGSS, Guatemala. To know more about the work of CEGSS, please CLICK HERE