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The Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt and The Shalom Foundation have agreed to work together to improve the lives of children in Guatemala through better health care by facilitating and creating sustainable programs to provide health care services and to educate the community on how to better care for themselves.
To accomplish this mission the Children's Hospital and The Shalom Foundation will work together to:
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 Provide medical teams of various disciplines and specialties to deliver medical services and surgical procedures for the children of this area.
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Provide direct patient related activities, including medical evacuations, nutrition and education programs.
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Pioneer a new holistic model of research, teaching and service that spans the schools and divisions of Vanderbilt.
Click the following links to learn about Children's Hospital's surgery trips in Guatemala:
General Surgery Trip Presentation, February 2010
Urology Trip Presentation, September 2009
Ear, Nose, and Throat Surgery Trip Presentation, September 2008
Ear, Nose, and Throat Surgery Trip Presentation, December 2007
Ear, Nose, and Throat Surgery Trip Presentation, November 2006
Helping Hands - Partnership gives hope to children in poverty-stricken Guatemala
Team’s Guatemala mission a success, on many levels
Urologic Surgery in Guatemala Summary Presentation, February 2006
 Guatemala has among the worst performances in the world in child growth attainment, with an overall stunting rate of 44% of all children under 5, due to lack of nutrition. Only Bangladesh and Yemen have worse stunting rates.
There is also a very high ratio of children to adults as a result of the country's 36-year civil war which ended in 1996. The war resulted in deaths of 100,000 people and one million refugees.
- 50% of the population in Guatemala is under 18.
- 42.6% of the population is between 0 and 14 years old.
- 75% of the population live below the poverty line.
- 16% live in extreme poverty.
- 59% lack access to any healthcare services.
The Shalom Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing humanitarian assistance and financial support to children living in extreme poverty. The Foundation works to provide these children and their families with the most basic of needs:
- Through the Child Sponsorship program, at risk children have the opportunity to attend school and receive a quality education
- Through the Food for Thought program, moderately- to severely-malnourished children receive a well-balanced meal each day that will help them grow and learn
- Home construction and repair is provided to those living in unsafe shelters or no shelters at all
- In addition, the Foundation works to provide medical care to these underprivileged children for basic as well as critical care needs.
To learn more about The Shalom Foundation, visit http://www.theshalomfoundation.org/.
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