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Salud Mesoamerica Project 2015 is transitioning into its 2nd phase of operations. The main focus of the project in Belize is to improve access and quality of maternal, infant and neonatal health care services in Corozal, Orange Walk and Cayo. According to the coordinators, the 1st phase which dealt with training community health workers and donating equipment to hospitals in the North and west, was successful. We spoke with Project Technical Official, Jennifer Nelson about the goals of the 2nd phase of the project and how it will enhance the services for women and children.

Martha Woodye - Project Coordinator, Salud Mesoamerica Belize

"in the first operation for the Mesoamerica Belize project we actually started implementation July 2012 and have been executing for 24 months. And during that 24 months we have made significant improvement. This addressing the project in terms of maternal, infant and child - focusing on adolescent care. When we look at the community health care workers one of the things was doing trainings, make sure the manuals are in place and aside from doing their manuals; conducting trainings, competencies and then from there they did both a theory and practical. So in the first operation we had 105 graduated community health care workers."

Jennifer Nelson- Project Technical Official, Panama

"The first part of this workshop, we're focusing on what we learned in the first operation. Things that went well, but also things we can improve so we can make we have the best second operation that's possible. In addition to that we're going through detailed planning about all the levels of the system you need to do to reach our goal in the 2nd operation, which are even tougher. Because they focus on quality of care, not just making sure the right inputs are in place. So it's really that everything went right for all the patience that are being treated by the ministry."

The second phase will run for 24 months starting this month. Equipment such as fans, A/C's , water coolers and medical instruments were donated to the Western and Northern Regional Hospitals as well as the San Ignacio Community Hospital and the Corozal Community Hospital.