During the past 17 years, Hospitalito Atitlán (HA) has transformed healthcare for 75,000 Maya in the highlands of Guatemala. Before HA, community residents had to go to the departmental capital of Sololá to get medical care. Pregnant women died during childbirth, because they had to travel across Lake Atitlán for medical assistance.
Today, obstetrical deaths are rare. People in Santiago Atitlán and environs benefit not only from care at the Hospitalito, but also from outreach programs reaching those in more rural areas.
Expanding the Vision will enhance these services through the construction of a 2,443 square foot two-story annex, providing urgently needed space to complete laboratory services with a blood bank, add four new consultation rooms, and create two classrooms for a new nursing school. Currently, there is no accredited nursing school in the department of Sololá. The teaching space will meet government requirements promoting the decentralization of university, social and medical centers to improve development in Guatemala to combat discrimination and poverty.
The capital campaign is the outcome of a one-year assessment of the HA’s capital and programmatic needs underwritten by St. John’s Lutheran Church in Mound, Minnesota. The architectural and engineering plans are completed and stamped, meeting the requirements for hospital construction in Guatemala.