{"id":3294,"date":"2025-06-02T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/?p=3294"},"modified":"2025-12-31T02:13:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T02:13:19","slug":"contributing-to-gods-reign-in-guatemala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/contributing-to-gods-reign-in-guatemala\/","title":{"rendered":"Contributing to God\u2019s Reign in Guatemala"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Growing up, Mary Lou Daoust always knew that she would become a doctor. The Detroit native never imagined that one day she would serve some of Guatemala\u2019s poorest communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The road to mission, for Sister Daoust, started with her medical residency at the University of Miami hospitals. \u201cI became interested in working with patients of other cultures, and in mission as a long-term commitment,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd so, I found Maryknoll<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assigned to Guatemala, she worked alongside Maryknoll Sister Jane Buellesbach<\/a>, also a physician. When the sisters\u2019 team moved in 1983 to the department (state) of San Marcos, she and Sister Buellesbach were the only doctors in the town and municipality of Catarina. \u201cWe spent the first year visiting rural communities and seeing patients,\u201d Sister Daoust recounts. \u201cAt the end of the afternoon, we would meet with the community to hear their needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most maladies were preventable, such as bacterial infections and ailments due to parasites and malnutrition. Having already run a successful health promoters program in another part of Guatemala<\/a>, the sisters got to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Patients
Patients wait to be seen by Sister Daoust at a two-room outpost clinic built next to the Catholic church of the village of Nic\u00e1 in the department (state) of San Marcos. (Octavio Dur\u00e1n\/Guatemala)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe began training people from Catarina and the next town,\u201d says Sister Daoust, who works in health ministry for the Diocese of San Marcos<\/a>. Word spread quickly. \u201cIt just took off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candidates attend six basic courses comprised of four days of classes taught every two months. Daylong continuing education workshops are offered twice a year. For example, last September\u2019s workshop focused on metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that increase the risk of chronic diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romeo Esteban and Carlos Romeo Orozco took part in the first groups of health promoters<\/a>. \u201cWhat the sisters came to teach us made a huge change in the communities, starting with our own families,\u201d Orozco says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first course is all about basic hygiene,\u201d Sister Daoust says. \u201cCarlos Romeo spent a year convincing his wife to boil the water. She finally said to him, \u2018You were right. The kids don\u2019t get sick with diarrhea anymore.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that time, the promoters relate, people would go to the fields to relieve themselves, contaminating crops and groundwater. If they walked barefoot, parasite larvae entered the soles of their feet. \u201cWe ran a program to build latrines,\u201d Sister Daoust says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA big part of health work in places like San Marcos is prevention,\u201d Sister Daoust continues. In the communities, the sisters had noted high rates of respiratory illnesses due to the inhalation of smoke from wood-burning stoves. They also observed drastic deforestation taking place as villagers cut down trees for firewood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sisters began to partner with a Guatemalan company that builds ecological stoves<\/a> using 50% less firewood. A chimney diverts the smoke to minimize inhalation. Over the past three years, Sister Daoust and the promoters have placed 906 ecological stoves in homes throughout San Marcos. The health ministry project pays for half the cost of each stove, and the family pays for the other half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although conditions in San Marcos have improved over these four decades, the need for health care is still dire. After 60 years, almost all spent in Guatemala, in 2023 Sister Buellesbach returned to the States, but Sister Daoust remains, based at the Catarina clinic on the hot and humid coast. In the chilly heights of the altiplano, a second clinic is run as part of the diocesan health ministry by Doctor Mario Fuentes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Carlos
Carlos Romeo Orozco, a health promoter trained by the Maryknoll sisters, works at the program\u2019s dispensary in the town of Catarina which provides medications at affordable prices. (Octavio Dur\u00e1n\/Guatemala)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The clinic<\/a> includes a dispensary which Esteban and Orozco keep open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. A markup of 10 percent provides their salaries. Medication prices are significantly lower than in pharmacies, and the dispensary is better stocked than government facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn Mondays, we see patients in town<\/a>,\u201d Sister Daoust says. \u201cNowadays, diabetes is the most common problem<\/a>. Every week we get three or four new cases. Some patients are not even 30 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another concern, she says, is detecting and treating Helicobacter pylori<\/a> (H. pylori) bacteria, which has been linked to gastric cancer. \u201cGuatemala has one of the highest rates of gastric cancer<\/a> in the world,\u201d the physician notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Sister Daoust sees patients, on the clinic\u2019s second floor, Esteban and another promoter check and record glucose levels for diabetics already under treatment. \u201cIf it is good, we give them the same medications. If there is a change, we send them downstairs to the doctor,\u201d Esteban says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sister Daoust spends the rest of the week reaching patients at sites run by the program\u2019s 100 active volunteers. \u201cWe have promoters in most of the towns in San Marcos,\u201d the missioner says. \u201cWe have 40 places on the coast and almost the same in the altiplano.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of them is a settlement of 30 shacks on a rubber plantation<\/a>. Workers there are paid 60 quetzales<\/em> a day (less than $8). Their housing is made of corrugated metal and planks of wood. \u201cThese people live in one room, one after another in rows,\u201d Sister Daoust says. \u201cThey were born there and they\u2019ll die there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like his father, Manuel V\u00e1zquez was born and raised on the plantation. The work is demanding, he says, and the shift quota is 500 trees. Starting before dawn, harvesters slash the bark of each rubber tree. Sap, called latex, drips into a bucket affixed below. \u201cWhen it\u2019s a double shift, we tap 1,000 trees,\u201d V\u00e1zquez says. \u201cWe get up at 2 in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dar\u00edo L\u00f3pez demonstrates an ecological stove at a home in the village of Nic\u00e1.\n(Octavio Dur\u00e1n\/Guatemala)<\/span>Essential Blocks Slider Subtitle<\/span>
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Manuel V\u00e1zquez and his wife, Glendy Rosibel P\u00e9rez, use an ecological stove on the rubber plantation. Their 14-year-old son attends high school thanks to a scholarship from the sisters. (Octavio Dur\u00e1n\/Guatemala)<\/span>Essential Blocks Slider Subtitle<\/span>
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A mother of three obtains medications at the outpost clinic in Nic\u00e1, where, she says, \u201cthey treat us well.\u201d (Octavio Dur\u00e1n\/Guatemala)<\/span>Essential Blocks Slider Subtitle<\/span>
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Sister Daoust relies on promoters Carlos Romeo Esteban and Romeo Esteban P\u00e9rez to help run the diabetes clinic and dispensary in town. (Octavio Dur\u00e1n\/Guatemala)<\/span>Essential Blocks Slider Subtitle<\/span>
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Yet after the workday ends, his volunteer duty begins. He and his uncle, Isa\u00edas, both trained by the sisters, typically provide about 500 consults over the course of six months. \u201cPeople come from all around,\u201d V\u00e1zquez says, proud to serve in this important and respected role<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Promoters with the most experience become supervisors. There are 10 supervisors on the coast and 10 in the altiplano, Sister Daoust says. Serious cases are referred to the doctors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe give each promoter a set of 20 essential medicines to start with,\u201d she explains. These include cold and flu remedies, acetaminophen, antacids, antiparasitic medications and creams for skin problems such as athlete\u2019s foot, which is common in this climate. Promoters replenish supplies through the dispensary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dar\u00edo L\u00f3pez has served as a promoter for 29 years in the village of Nic\u00e1. In a simple, two-room structure next to the church, Sister Daoust treats patients while L\u00f3pez distributes medications and carefully records information in a notebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

L\u00f3pez, a subsistence farmer, has little formal education. The hardest learning curve for him was record keeping. \u201cThe program keeps strict accounting,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we learn. There are workshops and courses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patients, however, are not numbers. \u201cSister Jane used to say, \u2018There are people who come for medicine, but there are also people who just need to talk,\u2019\u201d he recalls. \u201cShe told us, \u2018People need to be heard. You must learn to listen to them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A mother of three children, wearing a traditional Indigenous skirt<\/a>, waits for a consult. \u201cI\u2019ve always come here,\u201d she says. \u201cHere in the clinic, they treat us well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being a promoter, L\u00f3pez reflects, is a calling. \u201cI didn\u2019t understand at first,\u201d he admits. He was 19 when he signed up, and during the training he wondered why passages from the New Testament were read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, he says, he understands: \u201cServing the people is serving God. We are contributing to God\u2019s Reign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

View the Maryknoll Sisters\u2019 2021 video about Sisters Jane Buellesbach and Mary Lou Daoust:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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