Program

Health Care

“Being a health promoter practitioner is something so needed … we’ve formed this level of companionship and support within ourselves as an organization and to our patients.”

Learn

Concern America-trained health promoter practitioners and midwives provide life-saving care to a population of 255,000 in remote regions of Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico with little to no access to health care services.

The community health workers, as well as the populations they serve, are mostly campesinos (“of the land”) and include representatives of many of the indigenous groups.

Living sometimes up to 10 hours away from a hospital or government-run clinic, we meet patients and the community where they are. Health promoter practitioners provide primary healthcare by diagnosing and treating illnesses, as well as educating others. The training also includes midwives who focus on women’s health, as well as dental promoters.

Our Approach

To create truly healthy communities, it is crucial to address socioeconomic and environmental factors that contribute to a widening gap of material poverty. Therefore, our focus is on building the knowledge, skills, and capacity of local leaders to become Health Promoter Practitioners.

The Health Promoter Practitioners and midwives provide care to patients where no other access to care exists.

Humanized Health Care

Eva, a Health Promoter Practitioner working in Guatemala, said it best: “The most gratifying thing about being a health promoter practitioner is to be able to bring humanized health care to the communities. We, the promoters and the patients, are on the same economic level, from the same communities, so they trust us to share their issues.”

Training Students

New Students become Health Promoter Practitioners after three years of studying, increasing capacity and narrowing the gap of those living in remote areas without access to health care. Also, knowledge and skills are developed and passed on from generation to generation.

Leadership Formation

Concern America is invited to provide its support services by local groups and organizations who are actively working to create change in their communities. We work alongside and train local people to become primary health care workers.