Brewda Care
MONTE CARLO, Guatemala – Maria Antonia, an 18-year-old young mom with two children already, is quite pregnant. She has that glow and her belly gives away that she is past the half-way mark. But she does not know the date she became pregnant and does not know how long she has to go. 
“Your due date?” I asked her.
“I lost track of the date,” she said through a translator.
She has not seen a doctor. There is no family doc – let alone a gynecologist – anywhere nearby. She does not know the sex of the baby. She has never seen an ultrasound machine. She will give birth again with the help of a traditional midwife in her one-room home with a dirt floor where a small wood fire burns in one corner to provide heat for cooking.
That is the state of prenatal care in the rural communities of Guatemala I have visited this week. In Maria’s village there is, well, nothing … nothing, that is, but Brewda Avila.
Brewda is a wonder. She is a type of saint, something along the lines of a Robin Hood, bringing what she can from the rich to help the poor. What she brought on 
this day were prenatal vitamins and messages for moms, expectant moms and future moms about how to be healthier for themselves and their children. Her work is part of a larger prenatal health program MAP is sponsoring along with its partner in Guatemala, Vine International. Our corporate partner, Shionogi, donated the vitamins.
Brewda is part community organizer, part health promoter, and full-time action hero. She travels from community to community in his rural area bringing health messages, medicines and supplies to those who are without them. Bringing vitamins to pregnant moms will make a big difference, she said.
“Its very important because they do not have a health center near,” she said. “The vitamins and medicines coming to this community are very important for their health.’”
Maria was one of the beneficiaries on this day of both the health messages and the vitamins. She is hoping for a healthy remainder of her pregnancy. She has a better chance now.
