NAPA OT Field School applications: April 1 deadline

Call for Students! Placements available in the NAPA-OT Field School in Antigua, Guatemala — June 1-26, 2015.

Positions are available for anthropology, public health, and clinical students interested in building research skills! More information and the application can be found at www.napaotguatemala.org. Admission on a rolling basis with an April 1 deadline. Email hall-clifford@napaotguatemala.org with questions.

NGO Networks and Perspectives on Child Migration: Examining Perceptions of Root Causes

The NGO Networks group will work to explore occupational perspectives on child migration and its causes drawing from among diverse sectors of Guatemalan society. The project will be developed in collaboration with local NGOs to investigate views of precipitating factors for the migration of Guatemalan children, with particular focus on programming strategies to improve educational and future employment opportunities. The NGO Networks group will explore legal and policy approaches to migration used within Guatemala. By bringing together community, NGO, and legal perspectives, the group will consider human rights and occupational outcomes for Guatemalan migrant children.

Sustainable Social Enterprise for Water: Social Justice, Community Development, and Household Occupations

The Sustainable Social Enterprise group will explore Guatemala’s progress on Millennium Development Goal 7, focusing on Target 7C to halve the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe water and sanitation. The Guatemalan government remains unable to provide adequate access to safe water for rural populations, leaving them vulnerable to intestinal infections and poor health outcomes. Transportation of water and its purification typically falls to women or children within Guatemalan households, and distant water sources can pose a significant daily occupational burden. To address these issues, highly regarded social enterprise EcoFiltro (http://www.ecofiltro.org/en) provides affordable household water filters through an innovative rural business model in which urban sales offset the cost of filters for rural households. Based on first-hand research, students will highlight trends in community and household adoption of the water filters, with particular attention to community adoption rates and household payment rates.

Rachel Hall-Clifford, PhD, MPH, MSc
Co-Director
NAPA-OT Field School, Guatemala