Regional Stories
Anet Naranjo is 19 years old and lives in Cerro, Havana, Cuba. She is a health promoter at the National Center for the Prevention of STIs and HIV/AIDS and belongs to the group of young volunteers for the Trolley for Life (Carrito por la Vida) project, dedicated to preventing sexually transmitted infections, primarily among adolescents and young…
Nancy Vides, El SalvadorOne part education, one part guidance on healthy lifestyles, another part self-care for preventing disease; a bit of follow-up on medication, and some community organization; this is Nancy Vides´s recipe for health promotion in her community of Mejicanos in San Salvador, El Salvador."These are all factors that help us…
Expedito Cañaveral, Colombia
Every day, without fail, Expedito Cañaveral treks half an hour on foot, climbing stairs and navigating winding dirt mountain paths to arrive at the house of his neighbor, Alba Gaviria, in the La Honda neighborhood outside of Medellin, Colombia. He never misses a visit because he knows it could be a matter of life…
Fabian Barracks, Jamaica"Community health promotion has to include reaching our young people, and that means bringing health messages to them in a package they can appreciate and understand," says 29-year-old Fabian Barracks of Jamaica, who has written, produced and directed nine theatrical works that tackle various social issues. At the heart and…
Nicole Griffith, Barbados, September 2018
For 28-year-old teacher and nutritionist Nicole Griffith in Barbados, teaching kids about how to eat healthy foods so they can lead healthy, productive lives leads to a special kind of personal satisfaction. "Especially when it comes to (kids with) diabetes," notes Nicole.
In addition to teaching at the…
Rose Anderson, Belize
Rose Anderson, from San Ignacio Town in Belize, is an avid advocate for health education and promotion in her community. For the last 15 years, she has been leading an initiative with the Health Education and Community Participation Bureau (HECOPAB) to train Community Health Workers (CHWs) in rural areas on topics such as…
Roberto Valenzuela, BoliviaThe birthplace of 30-year-old Roberto Valenzuela, the Nuevo Amanecer neighborhood in El Alto, Bolivia, is more than 4,150 meters above sea level. Roberto is an urban artist, break dancer, and representative of the citizens´ collective of the Manq´a (“food” in the Aymara language) Cooking Schools.The Manq´ a Cooking…
I came from Mutatá here to the city of Medellin looking for a job, I worked in several companies and then the companies broke with each other...
A mere mention of Costa Rica can conjure up images of tropical rainforests, beaches, volcanoes and some of the most diverse flora and fauna on the planet—a country that has placed itself squarely on the global ecotourism map. Yet there is one aspect of this Central American nation that is, perhaps, less known: its decades-long fight against…