Off Duty
KEEPING CONNECTED Nelson's Cheralynne Kennedy continues to work with the rural Guatemalan community she supported during her 2009 nursing practicum.
It's been more than a decade since Cheralynne Kennedy visited Guatemala as a third-year Selkirk College nursing student. But the people she met in the tiny town of Nuevo Horizonte continue to inspire and influence her life back home in Canada.
"That trip helped make me who I am today," says Kennedy, now a veteran community nurse in Nelson, and a BCNU member educator and regional lobby coordinator. "The people of Nuevo Horizonte welcomed our group of nursing students with open arms. We felt loved and appreciated.
"Our practicum was led by Mary Ann Morris, a brilliant and inspirational teacher who brought nursing students to Nuevo Horizonte for years."
Before Morris retired recently, Kennedy and other Selkirk College grads founded the non-profit group Bienestar (well-being in Spanish) to carry on their instructor's humanitarian work and continue providing ongoing help to the impoverished, but hard-working people of Nuevo Horizonte.
The town arose from the ashes of a decades-long bloody civil war, fought between a brutal US-backed Guatemalan government and leftist fighters, many who were Mayan peasants. Some 150,000 Guatemalans had been killed by the time a peace treaty was signed in 1996.
Soldiers who had fought against the Guatemalan regime founded Nuevo Horizonte as a cooperative, where everyone is guaranteed the right to food, housing, education and health care. Some 500 people now live in the town, located near the famous Mayan ruins of Tikal.
"That trip helped make me who I am today."
"I was so impressed as a student with what they'd accomplished with this barren land," recalls Kennedy. "They may be poor by Canadian standards, but they work so hard to improve everyone's lives.
"We don't tell them what we want to do for them," says Kennedy, when asked how Bienestar supports the community. "We listen to them. It's a collaboration. The community tells us what they need and why they need it. They're involved and empowered. We learn from them."
For example, Kennedy says the community asked for assistance to reduce the high rate of diabetes in Nuevo Horizonte. Bienestar then helped organize a series of successful diabetes prevention and self-management programs.
Those include: graduating 21 local students from a diabetes health promoter training program, opening a diabetes health and wellness clinic with four part-time staff members and providing diabetes health education to 10 rural Indigenous women's organizations.
Kennedy's group also offers education scholarships, school supplies, child health and wellness programs and micro loans for development projects and small businesses. In 2017, for example, two women used Bienestar funding to open a popular taqueria restaurant in the town.
Bienestar has also provided seed money to assist a group of young people receive Spanish language teacher training. They've now opened Corazon de Maria Spanish school, which offers travellers from around the world a chance to learn a new language in a unique location while living with a local family.
Kennedy says 100 percent of all donations to Bienestar are spent in the community on programs supported by the residents of Nuevo Horizonte. "Bienestar board members cover all administrative costs," she says.
The Nelson nurse believes her 2009 Guatemalan practicum "made me realize that nursing is about so much more than just Western medicine. If I'm going to successfully speak up for my patients then I must advocate for all the social determinants of health.
"Nurses can make a difference by speaking up for those without a voice," she says. "The more we lift our own voices, the more we'll succeed in bringing about real change in Canada, Guatemala and around the world." •
If you're interested in donating to this Nelson-based non-profit, please visit bienestarcanada.ca for more information.
UPDATE (Winter 2020)