Tula in Guatemala – Reflections on 2018

As 2018 quickly comes to an end, Tula reflects on its global development achievements over the year, both in Canada and abroad. This year marks the third year of Tula’s $10.3 million four-year project in Guatemala – co-financed by Global Affairs Canada – which will contribute to the reduction of maternal and child mortality in rural communities. Working alongside our local partners at TulaSalud, 2018 was one of our busiest and most successful years in Guatemala.

In 2018, Tula successfully expanded its innovative community digital health solution to all four of its target regions in northern Guatemala, extending coverage to 3.4 million people. Since 2016, we have worked with the Ministry of Health in Guatemala to provide training and smartphone equipment to more than 4,000 health personnel in 92 districts, who have already used their devices to make more than 300,000 calls for support, and register 81,500 children for malnutrition monitoring and 22,000 women for pregnancy monitoring (including >5,000 adolescent girls). Health personnel equipped with smartphones now have access to 25 health promotion videos to share with patients and their family, friends, and communities, which have even been translated into 5 Mayan indigenous languages (Akateko, Chuj-Coatán, Chuj-San Mateo, Q’anjobal, and Mam).

In 2018, Tula supported the delivery of 4 distance education training programs for more than 1,200 local health personnel, focusing on topics including maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition. Training programs were delivered using distance education equipment provided to 95 local training sites, which offer training programs close to where health personnel live/work to facilitate local access to health services. We are also proud to join UNFPA and PAHO in supporting the Government of Guatemala’s National Plan for the Prevention of Pregnancies in Adolescents (PLAneA) 2018-2022. Tula is using its digital health solution to monitor adolescent pregnancies, as well as distance education technology to deliver training programs on delivering adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights services.

Tula’s achievements in 2018 were not only limited to Guatemala. Tula was invited by Global Affairs Canada to submit an application for the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society’s contest recognizing global organizations for outstanding success in implementing development-oriented strategies that leverage the power of information and communication technologies. In November, Eric Peterson was invited to participate in Global Affairs Canada’s Health Partners Forum with Canadian Civil Society Organizations in Vancouver, which invites Canada’s leading civil society organizations to provide their insight as Global Affairs Canada plans for its post-2020 investment. Tula’s Chief Technology Officer – Ray Brunsting – was also invited to participate in a panel on digital health in Latin America and the Caribbean during the Global Digital Health Forum 2018 in Washington, D.C.

As we say farewell to another successful year, Tula is already looking ahead to 2019; continuing to learn from its experiences, strengthening its global partnerships and contributing to global health equity.

From everyone at Tula and TulaSalud, we wish you a happy holiday and feliz navidad!