Guatemala Fieldwork Experiences
Sandra Morles-Mirque Bio Heading link
Sandra Morales-Mirque is an MPH student in the Division of Community Health Sciences. Sandra will be conducting her applied practice experience with Guatemala Village Health in Guatemala. Sandra will be assisting to develop an intervention to address domestic violence in indigenous communities in Guatemala. Sandra recently conducted a literature review on previous interventions addressing domestic violence in indigenous communities and presented a poster on her review at the 2023 UIC Minority Health Conference.
Before My Experience Heading link
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Before
Before I head to the community where I will be conducting the APE project (including community mapping to help address issues related to domestic violence), I take the time to visit Tikal (one of the largest restored archeological sites in Guatemala, and world heritage site). As I travel, I speak with several people, particularly with people who identify themselves as indigenous, to learn more about how different communities are organized (some communities have their own Community Council whose authority is more influential than the official government). One of them puts me in contact with his daughter, a Psychologists who works with indigenous communities. I also begin having preliminary conversations with the team I will be working with (host organization), and being planning logistics. I am very much looking forward to start working on my project!