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Tia Foundation Helps Rural Mexico Face Health Challenges |
Tia Foundation
Developing health in rural Mexico may be a daunting challenge, but it is one Laura Libman, a Thunderbird alumna, undertakes bravely through her Tia Foundation.
The Tia Foundation works closely with Mexican States, and its health and social development organizations, such as DIF, to address health issues and medical emergencies in rural, indigenous communities in Sonora, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Colima, and soon, in Zacatecas.
To overcome the challenge, Laura uses Global Development models learned at Thunderbird to help build a network between local governments, health institutions, universities and native communities to address healthcare issues.
Laura's global mindset enables her understanding of the cultural sensitivity of the indigenous communities in Mexico, and she explains: "I don't want to go in and change their lives, other than improving their quality of health; if you address their health, you improve quality of life because everything falls apart when good health is not there."
The first step is integrating the community. "When the community has decision making power, I think it's more sustainable," she says. The community elects a female health promoter who gets hands-on training and a medical kit to begin work.
The first medical kit is supplied by the Tia Foundation, but the next are supplied by the local health center, so that the community can connect with someone they can trust. The universities provide training materials, and, in some cases, the government provides a village health insurance to pay for transportation during emergencies.
All supplies are local, because, as Laura explains, "If you want to develop the economy, you buy things locally." She adds that other reasons include the fact that the supplies are labeled in the local language, and are cheaper in Mexico.
Next steps include basic health education through the health promoter, establishing produce gardens to decrease malnutrition, and develop technology appropriate to the community so it can be maintained by themselves.
"Our ultimate goal is to make ourselves obsolete," states Laura. "My only goal besides being a better person, before I die, is to make at least a small corner of the world better than I found it."