AHMEN/SIFAT Update   -   December 2010

Byron Moralles reports completion of the second workshop for 51 participants of the AHMEN/SIFAT initiative .  The workshop took place in Cosuna, Honduras.  Most of the participants were follow up from the last one, with the addition of Suyapa from Shalom.  The theme was how to save fuel and build  better stove.  The construction was made from local materials.
The next workshop will be in late February or early March.  There will be two areas of emphasis.  One will be how to work to control diarrhea in kids.  The local Cuban and Honduran doctors will participate in the workshop and the members of the teams will learn how to make safe to drink water using sand filters from the local area.
The second area will be addressing respiratory  problems in kids and again the local docs will participate with the continuation of safe, low fuel cooking stoves.
Buyron plans to have one group for 4 days.  50% will be working on the above projects while the other 50% will work on Community development.
Zamorano, the Agricultural School of Honduras, will be take part in the workshop.  For those of us who don’t know, Zamorano is know as the best Agricultural School in Central America.  70% of their students are from other countries.  This will add a whole new dimenstion to the project.
Dr. Melly Arriola, the Representative of the Municipal Network, MAMUGA, let a discussion at the last workshop.  Dr. Melly is a Garifina doctor and  has challenge the participants to develop health related programs for their individual communities and has offered to help the local villages find funding from the government. 

The last of the first years workshop is scheduled to take place between Aug 6 and Aug 14 to coincide with the Honduras Library Seminar in Cosuna.  Byron is working on the graduates receiving a diploma recognized by the Honduran Government as an official health care worker.  

We recommend any team going into Honduras contact Byron and, if one of the health care workers are in the area teams will be working in, ask them to participate with your team.

To be a part of AHMEN/SIFAT Initiative, or to learn more about this, contact:
Byron Morales: byromen@yahoo.com
Benny Rowe:  bennyrowe@bellsouth.net
Tom Camp:    llamacamp@gmail.com
Michael Franklin: frankmj42@gmail.com