In only a few days, a group of traditional Indigenous Maya midwives, health providers and leaders will visit Canada to exchange knowledge and experiences on their tireless efforts for culturally relevant, life-saving health services in the face of entrenched discrimination. Join them in their tour across Ontario and West Quebec!

This visit forms part of a series of knowledge-exchanges under Horizons’ and its Guatemalan partner, the Association for Health Promotion, Research and Education (PIES), multi-million dollar project to improve maternal, newborn and child (MNCH) in the predominantly Maya K’iche’ province of Totonicapán, Guatemala. The project, under a co-share funding agreement with Global Affairs Canada, has already benefited over 40,000 Maya K’iche’ women, children and families during its first year. Click here to read more about the first year of this comprehensive initiative.

The Guatemalan delegation is comprised of brave women and men on the front line of the province’s MNCH challenges: two traditional Maya K’iche’ midwives being trained and equipped through the project (Valenzuela Cos and Estela Canastuj); a Maya K’iche’ community leader who is President of his village’s Community Health Commission and Community Development Council (Eusebio López), PIES’s Gender Equality Coordinator who is part of the project team in Guatemala (Lucrecia Pisquiy), the Director of the Totonicapán Health Directorate – the provincial division of the Guatemalan Ministry of Health (Dr. Juan José Escalante), and the Head of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of the Totonicapán Provincial Hospital (Dr. Hannaly Ruiz).

Check out our event calendar for free, public opportunities to listen to first-hand accounts on how this project is helping transform Indigenous lives. We hope to see you there!

For more information, contact Raul Scorza at rscorza@horizons.ca or Linda Robertson at lroberston@horizons.ca.