In the Grinder - Our Daily Coffee Weblog

My week in Chiapas with Grounds for Health absolutely flew by, as do most trips far from home that you are genuinely enthralled in. After taking a quick break from reality to catch up with friends in Mexico City, I caught an eeaaaarly morning flight to Tuxtla Guiterrez, Chiapas, took a taxi.. to catch a bus.. to the sweet old colonial town of San Cristobal de las Casas where I grabbed another cab to meet a pen-pal-co- GFH volunteer at a small hostel. We eagerly made one another’s acquaintance and quickly set off on foot to explore the charming zocalo (town square) and poke around the local Mayan Medicine Museum. I welcomed the wonderful warmth and light of the sun, a natural wonder I had been deprived of since last September. An hour in the direct sunlight at breakfast, however, was enough to leave me with an instantaneously painful burn that lasted the rest of the week. Yikes! – Fortunately, that was the greatest inconvenience of the trip. The same afternoon, my new friend Alanna and I took a taxi, to a bus, to a cab, to the airport, to pick up and unite with August, the GFH executive director. Three and a half hours on a bumpy, dirt mountain road later we had finally arrived to Jaltenango de la Paz, Chiapas where the CESMACH Coop is located and where I will be spending June and July this summer providing continued support to the work described below! 

Oh but the day wasn’t over! Due to high winds, two other members of the GFH team had been delayed for two days, stuck midway between their Vermont origin and Mexican destination.…with all of the training campaign supplies. We settled into our hotel and began to innovatively develop an alternative training plan for the next two days of ‘capacitaciones’, or trainings, of the peer health educators (PHEs).  Diving into day one of the trainings, we were so pleased to see the room filled with 25 women from the surrounding CESMACH communities who had come to learn about advocating for their own and their peers’ health.

Before going any further, I must stress the imperative role that the CESMACH Coop plays in making this a successful relationship. They are the ones who take time away from their already full work schedules to recruit women  and medical providers from their participating communities to come to the trainings, arrange transportation and lodging for them in addition to meals for everyone each day of the training. Throughout the week, I was impressed time and time again as I saw CESMACH’s dedication to holistically bettering the quality of life of their members. They join efforts not only with Grounds for Health but also Heifer International to provide livestock to community members in addition to other various programs aimed at meeting their basic nutritional needs. They are also dedicated to environmental sustainability. In case you missed my last post, our FTO Mexico El Triunfo Biosphere comes from the CESMACH Coop. The biosphere is home to many of Mexico’s wildlife species and the largest watershed in Mexico is located there as well. A portion of the premium paid for this coffee goes towards the preservation of the biosphere.  

The two peer health educator workshop days were packed full. We discussed the basics of reproductive health, the risks of cervical cancer and its development process as a result of persistent HPV in addition to cervical cancer screening and corresponding treatment methods. Once the participants grasped an understanding of these key points, we moved on to teach effective communication skills and how to go about organizing and facilitating a ‘charla’, or a chat with a friend or group of peers regarding these topics so as to encourage their peers to go to the clinic for a free screening.  

Quick Facts:

∙ 80% of the general population will contract HPV at some point in their life

∙ 90% of those infected will self-cure within two years

∙ 10% will have persistent HPV which will lead to cervical cancer in a small percentage of women if gone untreated

∙ Pre-cervical cancer develops from 5-10 years of initial HPV infection

∙ Cervical cancer develops from 10-20 years of initial HPV infection and is often fatal if not treated early 

The Good News:

Due to its slowly developing nature, cervical cancer can be prevented with the early detection of precancerous cells! The trick is getting women to the clinic for a screening. 

The second half of the week was spent in a clinical training with local health providers. 13 clinicians representing nine different health posts attended. We presented in detail on the same topics discussed in PHE training in addition to how to perform the Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) screening procedure and the Cryotherapy treatment procedure. With the help of a little white vinegar, the VIA procedure reveals immediate results by turning pre-cancerous lesions on the cervix white, these changes are visible with the plain eye and a good flashlight. In the event that a woman has these lesions, she can be treated with Cryotherapy during the same visit. Cryo is a quick process that freezes and kills the precancerous cells. This method of screening and treating is referred to as the Single Visit Approach and eliminates the need two month process of traditional pap-smear. After a pap is taken, the slides are sent to a far off place to be read and the results are mailed back to the clinic. After such a long wait, many women grow tired of anxiously awaiting their results (that may or may not ever arrive) and are much less likely to take necessary follow-up measures as a result.   

Quick Facts:

∙ VIA is performed in less than 5 minutes and is as effective as a pap-smear

∙ Cryotherapy can be administered the same day as the screening and is successful in killing precancerous cells

∙ Calculated cost of the single visit approach per woman? 25 cents  

My spring break was only a week long, unfortunately, and I wasn’t able to participate in the actual clinical campaign during the following week where the providers would put their newly acquired knowledge and skills to practice. They saw 376 women throughout the week and treated 33 of those women with Cryotherapy. Nine of the providers completed the entire training and clinical practice requirements achieving VIA competency and six of those went on to complete the Cryo competency, allowing them to continue the single visit approach once the GFH campaign was over. Before leaving, GFH made sure to leave full tanks of CO2 and N2O, necessary components of the Cryo process, enabling providers to continue it as necessary.  

My time with CESMACH and the GFH team was a tremendous experience! Not only did I gain a great deal of knowledge by participating in each of the trainings but I was also humbled and honored by the privilege of meeting and working so closely with some of the women who produce coffee that we buy at Café Imports and with the rock-star team at CESMACH who is so indisputably dedicated to their coop members. Stay tuned in June and July for updates and highlights on my time in Chiapas. 

 Interested in making a difference with GFH?

∙ Check them out at www.groundsforhealth.org

∙ Participate in their annual green coffee auction fundraiser June 2^nd-4^{th :} http://auction.groundsforhealth.org/