Xesampual community school is small but tight-knit: sitting between cornfields and hills that rise above the basketball court, it’s well taken care of.
Flowerbeds line the entrance, and a water tower sits between the covered auditorium space and the classrooms that surround it. When students pour out of classrooms midmorning for snack and recess, they go automatically to the taps to wash their hands before diving into what their mothers have packed: slices of watermelon, apples, a roll with black beans.
“Children learn lifelong habits at an early age,” says teacher Darío Ixcol. “It wasn’t always like this.”
He’s referring to the student’s behavior: washing their hands before they eat, asking for toilet paper before going to the bathroom, eating healthy snacks instead of the more easily-accessible packets of snacks available at every corner store. Mil Milagros has worked with Xesampual community school for 8 years–and the change in school culture and behavior that prioritizes these healthy habits is unmistakable.
This is exactly the goal of Mil Milagros’ Health program: sustainable behavior change driven by students, staff, and parents. As part of the program, staff train student council members and groups of parents who volunteer their time as community health leaders in the importance of healthy hygiene habits like hand washing, teeth brushing, drinking clean water, and eating nutritious foods. They learn leadership skills like public speaking and working in teams, and then lead multiple public health campaigns at their schools and in their communities. In a country where close to 50% of the population doesn’t have access to safe drinking water and stomach-related illness can significantly impact both student attendance and rates of malnutrition, ensuring that children stay healthy is paramount. Hygiene promotion is the most cost-effective action to reduce disease, and this year our partner schools knocked it out of the park.
At the beginning of 2024, staff on our Health program team modified our program, enrolling 7 longtime partner schools as “ambassadors” who would serve as leaders and examples to new schools in the program and begin to practice independence in things like budgeting for hygiene supplies and public health advocacy. After seven months to get the hang of things like hygiene monitoring, systems to keep classrooms and common spaces clean, and independently budgeting for supplies, these schools are succeeding: not only have all 7 of them achieved “Healthy School” status based on a predetermined, scored set of criteria, but parents and students at all 7 schools banded together to eliminate junk food from school property. Where there used to be vendors outside school gates selling chips and candies, parents and students at all 7 schools have asked them to sell healthy foods or sell elsewhere.
Because of the high rates of malnutrition in many communities where Mil Milagros works, ensuring that children are eating healthy and on track to thrive is an issue of great concern for many local parents. They feel strongly about the harm of pre-packaged snacks that are plentiful in rural Guatemala, and they’re eager to learn new nutritional information and try nutrient-dense recipes at home. That’s why, when it was time to choose a topic for the summer public health campaign, staff worked with parents and students to design something focused around healthy eating. Students, teachers, and community health leaders each chose to present a cooking demonstration or prepare a recipe, many of them focusing on amaranth, a nutrient-dense grain native to Central America.
“I love the recipes,” Eva, a School Board Member, told us. “I never thought about making beet pancakes or about all of the things you can make with amaranth. It gives me lots of ideas as a School Board member about how we can prepare healthy school lunches. I am going to prepare some of the recipes for our kitchen volunteers so that they can try them and see that with simple ingredients you can create healthy recipes.” Eva wasn’t alone in her enthusiasm: over 200 people from two municipalities attended the public health campaign presentations this summer to gather ideas and advocate for the importance of healthy eating at home and at school.
The best thing about all of this? These big changes like banning junk food vendors have all been driven by parents and students.
“The changes we’re seeing in ambassador schools are due to dedicated groups of parents, students, and community health leaders,” Isabel Chavez, Health Program Director told us. “Events like the public health campaign have also helped to increase community enthusiasm about things like healthy eating.”
While our staff work with groups of parents and student council members on skills like systems for monitoring cleanliness and hygiene behaviors, building and sticking to a budget, and leadership and advocacy skills, leaders have implemented these skills to a huge effect. They’re keeping their schools cleaner, changing the culture around hygiene, and making sure that not just their schools but their communities can live healthier lives.
This is what’s possible when communities have the tools they need to thrive. We are proud to work with such dedicated groups of students and parents on sustainable programs that ensure local communities can take the lead on the issues that they care about most. Thank you for everything you do to support them and make changes like these possible.
Want to learn more about some of our Health program victories? Check out the links below:
