Monday – Los Panales

The team visited Los Panales, which is about 10-12 miles SW of Quimistan. Maynor and Dr. Tino recommended this trip based on a recent medical visit. We used the HAF “Community Development Assessment Tool” for our discussions to collect baseline information on the village and their needs. We met with the community leaders for about 2 hours. The village has about 280 residents–about ½ children and ½ adults, living in about 50 houses. They have about 20 kindergarten students, who meet in the local Catholic church, and about 45 students in grades 1 through 6. About 15 students attend the post-6th grade school in San Marcos, which is 5-6 miles away. Their most important health problems are asthma, high blood pressure, and diarrhea. Their most important project needs are a new kindergarten building and a new water system. They said that a new water system had been approved by the government, but they still had some concerns that local politics might interfere with the implementation of the project.

Most of their cooking stoves are not vented to the outside, so they would need about 50 Justa stoves. About half of the 50 houses have latrines. We were very impressed with these community leaders, which include a young female president of the patronato. The male community leaders in this meeting showed her high respect. Allen will present our findings to the HAF BOD to determine the path forward.