APEVIHS - Asociación para la Prevención y Estudio del VIH/Sida
APEVIHS is a non-governmental and non-profit organization committed to HIV/AIDS prevention, care, research and humanitarian assistance and food and nutrition security, as well as projects in the areas of school education, entrepreneurship with women and local collaborations towards shared solutions to prevalent problems in the region.
Organizational contacts & locations
Mission, vision & values
Our mission is to contribute to the eradication of hunger, poverty and inequality in rural communities in the south-west of the country, promoting development and generating opportunities for people to live with dignity.
Our vision is to be leaders and role models in the dissemination of evidence, systematization of experiences, and application of innovative methodologies to promote human and social development.
Products, services, and programs
We do not offer products yet, but we are planning and organizing a center for the production of antifidical serums in alliance with the "Clodomiro Picado" Institute of Costa Rica and the Toxicological Information and Advisory Center of the University of San Carlos of Guatemala.
- Nutritional care in an outpatient clinic
We serve an average of 500 children with acute and chronic malnutrition, who receive outpatient nutritional treatment, food bags, vitamin and mineral supplements, referral to specialized medical services, medications and payment of diagnostic and laboratory tests.
- Day hospitalization for children with severe malnutrition
We have a hospital with a capacity of 20 beds, designed to attend to complicated cases of acute malnutrition. It currently functions as a day hospital because it does not have the resources to offer permanent hospitalization. We are searching for resources to equip the clinical and X-ray laboratory to serve hospitalized children and the general population at affordable prices.
- Promotion of food security and nutrition
We carry out our food and nutritional security programs in rural communities affected by hunger, poverty and other vulnerable conditions. We currently cover 100% of communities in five of the nine municipalities in the department of Retalhuleu.
- Contraception and family planning
In alliance with Alas de Guatemala, we offer outpatient services for the placement of contraceptive barriers and we carry out community contraception and family planning workshops.
- Productivity and entrepreneurship with women
We organize, train, encourage and accompany women's groups in the rural area of Retalhuleu for the production of products that help them improve their family finances. We currently have groups producing poultry, tilapia and orchards.
- Improvement of educational quality in rural schools
In alliance with Ingenio Magdalena, for 7 years we have been serving 11 rural schools in Retalhuleu and 1,300 children, teachers, principals, parents, and community development councils with a comprehensive program of values, entrepreneurship, infrastructure, school meals, and capacity building for management and improvement of educational inside and outside the classroom.
- Prevention and care of HIV and STIs
As sub-recipients of the Global Fund to Fight HIV / AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, we carry out different prevention actions, offer screening tests, and link HIV-positive people to health services. We also carry out on-demand business tests and training for workers and executives.
- Research
In alliance with different universities and institutions abroad and the international cooperation represented in Guatemala, we design and carry out scientific research related to the food and nutritional problems of Retalhuleu and the country. We are active members of the National Council of Science and Technology, the Ibero-American Research Network and the American Society for Nutrition.
- Humanitarian aid
Our main concern is to alleviate the consequences of hunger, poverty and the lack of opportunities for those most in need, focusing mainly on supporting women and children in rural areas of our area of influence economically and in kind.
- Advocacy and legal accompaniment
As a consequence of our work in clinic and field, we constantly detect cases of child abuse and mistreatment, as well as gender violence, for which we provide advice, we advocate that these people make a complaint and demand to be attended by the institutions that provide justice; We also accompany people who need legal action to resolve problems or situations that affect their citizen rights.
- Training
We constantly carry out technical training for health personnel, community leaders, organized population groups, companies and others who require this service in the areas of our expertise and knowledge.
- Community health days
Throughout the year we carry out different health days in communities that do not have this service by the State of Guatemala, which are multidisciplinary in nature, serving mainly children, women of reproductive age, older adults and disabled people. In these days we provide free medical and nutritional care, medications, nutritional supplements, laboratory tests and health education.
- Medical care in our Maternal-Infant clinic
In October 2021, we will begin our medical care for children and women of childbearing age, who, in addition to medical care, will receive their treatment, vitamin and mineral supplements.
- Nurturing the future of the south coast
- Educating for life
- Small entrepreneur
- With woman's hands
- Nutritional emergency care center
- Solidarity sponsorship
- Healthy communities
- Generating scientific evidence for action
Organizational detail
APEVIHS was formed to strengthen HIV prevention in the country, prioritizing humanitarian aid, nutrition and prevention. However, due to the fact that in our work team we have several nutritionists with postgraduate studies and that in 2011 we had the opportunity to access a very generous research grant, we were able to demonstrate the magnitude of the food and nutritional problem of children. of the region where we are located and that led us to more scientific research with important universities abroad (Maryland, Johns Hopkins, Glasgows, Sackler Institute), which has allowed us to have enough scientific evidence to refocus our programs and projects.
Impact, adaptations & objectives
The main achievements obtained in the period 2012-2019 include:
- 1,530 boys and girls attended annually at the nutrition clinic.
- 13,770 bags of food aid and zinc sulfate delivered to the children of the nutrition clinic in the period 2012-2019.
- 14,900 boys and girls from the rural area of the department of Retalhuleu benefited from 2014 to 2019 with the complementary food "" Chispuditos "" and with other health and nutrition interventions.
- 333,683 bags of Chispuditos distributed to boys and girls in the rural area of the department of Retalhuleu in the period 2012-2019.
- 13,020 boys and girls benefited from the "" Educating for life "" program (values, entrepreneurship and citizenship training).
- 391 women from the rural area of the trained department with their own businesses running (vegetable production, poultry raising, piñatería, bakery, embroidery, among others).
- 13,595 HIV detection tests carried out in 2019 with population groups at risk.
- 12 scientific investigations carried out in the period 2011 to 2018.
We have also achieved the creation of the Nutritional Emergency Care Center 'María Clemencia Mérida', to attend to all the boys and girls who develop complications due to malnutrition in region VI of the country (Retalhuleu, Suchitepéquez, Quetzaltenango, San Marcos, Totonicapán and Sololá ). This center began operating as a day hospital at the beginning of March but had to be temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 health crisis.
The main impact of our institution on the department and the country is summarized below:
- Reduction of 5% in the prevalence of acute malnutrition in children under 5 years of age in the municipalities of: San Felipe, Santa Cruz Muluá, Nuevo San Carlos and Champerico.
- A 15% reduction in the prevalence of anemia in boys and girls under 7 years of age in the municipalities of: San Felipe, Santa Cruz Muluá, Nuevo San Carlos and Champerico.
- Reduction of reconsultations of boys and girls with acute or chronic malnutrition who are cared for in the APEVIHS nutrition clinic.
- Improvement of the family diet through the use of local foods.
- Improvement of the family economy of women entrepreneurs who have maintained their productive activity.
- Improvement of the school performance of children benefiting from educational programs in the municipalities of Champerico and Retalhuleu, in terms of language, math, class articipation, drop out, repetition.
- Visibility of the magnitude of the food and nutritional problem in the department of Retalhuleu, which was not seen with this type of problem by the Ministry of Health and other government agencies. It was possible for the Health Area Directorate to include a good part of the APEVIHS nutritional evaluation and monitoring data into the official statistical system, which validates and makes them official.
- Generation of scientific evidence on food and nutritional security made available to the Global Fund for HIV, Malaria and Tuberculosis and the National AIDS Program of the Ministry of Health for the incorporation of people living with HIV and their families into social protection programs.
- Contribution of scientific evidence to science, methodological tools and lessons learned in the different investigations carried out.
APEVIHS has a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Directorate which is in charge of designing the General M&E Plan of APEVIHS and of advising the M&E plans of each new project, ensuring the quality of the data that we use to feed the different indicators of results, processes and impact, both of APEVIHS's own programs, and of the projects we execute.
In general, a basic package of indicators is formulated, the instruments for recording the information are developed, they are collected on paper or using tablets, they are entered into previously designed databases, they are processed, the indicators are built and finally they are analyze the information.
Size and/or structure
As we implemented new lines of work and grew institutionally, we had to create new technical and administrative departments. The creation of our hospital for children with complications from malnutrition also forced us to grow in size and structure, since this hospital has new services that we did not have before.
Key offerings
Knowledge of the area, alliances with new partners and allies, the recognition of donors and participation in political advocacy, allowed us to rethink our institutional work to respond to the most relevant needs, problems and interests. We have made an analysis as objective as possible of our real and potential capacities to avoid falling into " institutional prostitution", that is, having to carry out many activities just to obtain financing even though we do not have the capacity to carry them out. For this reason, we have defined and maintained our lines of work and on this basis we have diversified the offer of services, basically focused on private initiative and international cooperation.
Location
Initially our association was planned to operate in the city of Quetzaltenango, but thanks to the fact that in June 2011 they gave us a house in Retalhuleu, we immediately saw the possibility of opening our offices in this city and from that account and thank you To the funds that we were obtaining to work in this region, we permanently moved from the capital city to this city in January 2012.
Target population
Our first target population was people living with HIV and the population vulnerable to contracting HIV, but due to what I have explained above, we reprioritized our target population and since 2013 they are children and women of reproductive age, whether they have HIV or not.
Objective problem
We made progress in our institutional rethinking, expanding our operating model to "inclusive and sustainable human and social development", since it is a broader concept that encompasses many areas of action, including those we previously carried out and that we do now.
Mission, vision and/or values
Our values remain the same, since we have defined them based on our personal and collective conviction, responding to the historical background of our country and our vision of the future. However, our mission and vision were broadened to include the promotion of human and social development, mainly at the rural level and taking innovation through research as a fundamental precept.
Funding model
We have evolved a lot around this issue, as we have understood that external financing is important but not fundamental, and that we must strive for sustainability to internally finance our programs and achieve the qualitative and quantitative growth of our institution. We have also learned that working with sectors traditionally not committed to society, such as private initiative, has allowed us to penetrate more and reach more those people who are marginalized from basic services and from economic and social development. The experience of working with industry and commerce has allowed us to offer services and get funds.
The way you collaborate or work with others
Rather than change our way of working around this issue, we have learned to value that collaborative work is the best way to better impact and make those who have not had the same growth opportunities than us. At APEVIHS we handle this maxim: "Who does not cooperate, stagnates and who cooperates, evolves", which has allowed us to cultivate excellent inter-institutional relationships and even indirectly, that benefit returns to us basically in the form of opportunities.
Growth
Integrate the needs generated by the COVID-19 crisis to search for opportunities to expand and diversify the coverage and offer of services.
Quality
Innovate the service delivery methodology considering the opportunities and lessons learned from teleworking as a consequence of confinement and mandatory social distancing.
Impact
Readjust the impact indicators and the data collection methodology in the field to adapt them to the demands generated by the current health crisis.
Growth
Diversify and extend the offer of programs, projects and services within the framework of the operations of the new Nutritional Emergency Care Center and the Antivenom Production Center.
Quality
Guarantee the safety and security of the provision of APEVIHS services, ensuring the protection of personnel and beneficiaries.
Impact
Achieve maximum sustainability of APEVIHS programs, projects and interventions to ensure and prolong the impact.