Mateo Nicolás
Village Health Promoter
Mateo Nicolás is a teacher by profession. We first met him at a Casa Colibrí health promoter training. He attended this training because there was no health promoter in the village where he worked, and the villagers looked to him when health questions and medical emergencies arose. Because he is very intelligent and catches on quickly in any situation, he was recognized as someone who would be an ideal candidate to staff the Casa Colibrí clinic full time. He accepted the job offer, and he has turned out to be an invaluable asset to the organization. Mateo’s skills as a teacher make him uniquely qualified to educate the villagers on basic health issues. He has participated in several health promoter trainings and has educated himself remarkably well by studying books such as Where There Is No Doctor and A Book For Midwives. We are sending him to nursing school to make sure he has the formal education and credentials needed to care for the people in a health-care setting. Mateo is an indigenous Maya and speaks Q’anjob’al, Chuj, and Spanish.