Guatemala Project Activities

For the past eight years, Heartland Alliance has provided funding, training and technical assistance to the Asociacion para la Salud y el Desarollo Integral de Momostenango (ASDIM) and Momostenango Community Hospital, a nonprofit private hospital serving impoverished persons in the Totonicapan Department, Guatemala.

This hospital provides community mental health services to Guatemalan torture survivors in the rural areas of Totonicapan and western Quiche provinces. The project works with Mayan traditional leaders and priests to establish a connection to a community that is insular and highly distrustful of the dominant Spanish-speaking culture. Heartland Alliance obtained initial funding from the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, and has since transitioned management to ASDIM. Staff and volunteers continue to provide technical assistance and training to this program, which assists more than 3,000 victims of human rights abuses annually.

Heartland Alliance is currently collaborating with ASDIM in the construction of 50 "green" housing units for female-headed households affected by the legacy of political violence and torture in Guatemala.