A Message from Dr. Sean Duffy
Dear Friend,
My name is Sean Duffy, and I am a family physician. I have had the privilege of working with the San Lucas Mission Health Promoter Program since 2016.
The Health Promoters in this program are local community members who have been trained to provide basic health services. When I first started collaborating with the Health Promoters, their primary program was preventing and treating childhood malnutrition in the rural villages of San Lucas. The nutrition program has been incredibly successful, reducing malnutrition-related deaths by 80% in these communities.
Since then, we have adapted this successful model to adult conditions identified as priorities by the Health Promoters and the communities they serve, including diabetes, hypertension, and cervical cancer. 
The number of people living with diabetes and hypertension in Guatemala in general and San Lucas in particular has increased dramatically over the past several decades. About 1 in 5 adult San Luqueños are now living with diabetes, hypertension, or both and these diseases are among the top 5 causes of death in Guatemala, as well as leading causes of disability.
Though almost entirely preventable through vaccination, screening, and treatment of precancerous lesions, cervical cancer is all too common in rural Guatemala and is one of the leading causes of death for women in their childbearing years.
For most San Luqueños living with diabetes or hypertension or in need of cervical cancer screening, seeing a doctor for these conditions or to be screened is extremely difficult. For these patients, the innovative programs run by the Health Promoters, which include cutting edge mobile health technology (and for cervical cancer screening, the use of patient self-testing in the comfort of their own homes), have been a crucial lifeline.
These programs now provide monthly follow-up, education, and medicine for diabetes and hypertension to over 300 patients, leading to a 60% increase in the number of patients meeting goals for diabetes control and to 75% of patients with high blood pressure having good control, up from less than half prior to starting with the program.
Since 2023, the Health Promoters have facilitated cervical cancer screening for approximately 500 women, of whom 27 have received treatment for precancer as a result of their participation in the program.
Your support is crucial to ensuring that the Health Promoters continue to have the resources they need to provide these life-saving services to San Luqueños who would not otherwise be able to access this care.
Your gift can help a child grow up healthy and able to reach their full potential.
Your gift can help a patient with diabetes or hypertension avoid premature death or a disabling complication such as amputation, vision loss, or stroke.
Your gift can prevent a woman from dying in the prime of her life due to an entirely preventable cervical cancer.
This week only, your gift will be doubled. Thank you for considering making a donation today.
Muchas Gracias!
Sean Duffy, MD, MPH
University of Wisconsin Family Medicine & Community Health