I have been working for 20 years and 8 months at the FUNDAP clinic of the Healthcare Program in Mazatenango, Suchitepéquez, where I carry out the following activities:
General medical consultation serving women, children and men; Medical days; Prenatal control (Maria project); Control of children, sons of Mary; Control of malnourished children (Sebastiana project); Performing the Pap test; ear wash; nail removal; Nebulizations; Counseling and support in the Esperanza project.
In the professional field, for me FUNDAP represents the following: “I was not able to specialize in Gynecology, but with the work that I do here, I see my vocation fulfilled to a great extent. So it fills me with complete satisfaction.”
Regarding to the most valuable learning that I have had in the workplace:
- I have been able to fulfill myself as a professional, mother, and wife, and on a spiritual level it has made me more supportive, human, and grateful to God, mainly for what he gives me: health, work, home, family, friends, etc.
- I feel like it has sensitized me. In addition, I consider that by my own means I would not have been able to help the number of people or families we have reached, since with the different programs that FUNDAP has, I have been able to see this dream come true: alleviate human pain. I know that maybe they are not huge changes in families, but we have made an impact on them and for me it is enough.
- To see in people a smile of gratitude when we carry out sessions in communities where the doctor does not arrive and there are no accessible health centers; or there are, but there is no staff to provide them with medical care, it fills me with satisfaction.
- Also, when a patient approaches me and asks me if I would accept if she brings me something to give away (I have been given fruit, food, water, even chickens, or roosters), or when we have finished our day and they tell us: “we will prepare a little lunch for you to thank you for coming to see us.” I was able to realize that, with this outreach, they feel valued, respected and loved. Experiencing these feelings would say that it has made me a grateful, humane, caring, responsible person.
The advice I would give to new staff is:
I feel satisfied, happy to be able to help and support the most vulnerable people, that’s why I think they should love what they do. And let us remember that we work for better development at the level of the most vulnerable and needy. FUNDAP has the motto of ‘Development with dignity,’ respecting the human person, their customs, traditions, and their culture. We owe it to our beneficiaries, to whom we have to provide and present the different programs, to which they can have access. In this way we are promoting development in communities, families or people with lower incomes, and through the different programs of the Foundation and its different projects, they can improve their quality of life.
That as collaborators we feel committed to the main objective of FUNDAP: to eradicate poverty through different strategies that are sustained by the values of freedom, honesty, equity, and respect for dignity.
