Hello everyone! This is Willow, again. Working with Curamericas Global this summer has been a wonderful learning experience and has better prepared me for identifying funders and proposal writing withing my career. For the last half of our practicum, we were focusing on identifying potential funders for our proposal projects. My proposal project is focused on requesting funding to support and sustain Casas Maternas, or community birthing centers. These Casas Maternas are specifically located in the Western Highlands of Guatemala with intent to improve the maternal mortality rates of indigenous women in the region, where the maternal mortality rate is twice that of non-indigenous and is higher than the national average. These health centers have been built and managed by the community members themselves and their community partner (Curamericas Guatemala). This project has required me to create a full proposal and budget, which has provided me with some of the hands-on proposal experience that we had practiced in our core courses. As a whole, this practicum has taught me a great deal about the review and proposal process, allowing me the ability to go forth with experience translating important materials and creating a proposal and budget. Within these final weeks of practicum, my partner and I are working to polish our proposals for our respective funders and send them out for review!
-Willow