SEED-SCALE Process for Community Change 

Rincon is a remote mountain community of 1600 people located in the Comarca (legal territory) of the Ngöbe-Buglé people in Western Panama.  Access to education, clean water, sanitation, economic opportunities and health care are all severely lacking in the Ngöbe-Buglé.  Due to the prosperity of the nation, sufficient governmental resources exist to do the kind of work necessary to improve the quality of life and raise the standard of living of the Ngöbe-Buglé.  However, do not reach the people, with a lack of information and coordination with government institutions.   

HEH has partnered with the people of Rincón to initiate the cycle of assessing the state of their own health and addressing their own needs with sustainable solutions. We work with community members/health promoters to collect data to build their capacity for future research.  Results will be used to establish priorities with community members and, through a highly participatory process, to create the first annual work plan.  This plan, based on the SEED SCALE methodology, will allow us to measure our impact and reassess priorities for each new work plan.  The people of Rincon have indicated that addressing Millennium Development Goal 7 (water and sanitation) will be their initial priority. 

A second area we are currently addressing is a pervasive lack of health knowledge.  Trained community health promoters are essential for carrying health messages to isolated populations; thus, HEH has empowered seven community members to serve as community health promoters.  Three others have recently been trained to serve as promoters of maternal and infant health. They are currently organizing the first community-wide information sessions.

Within the community, HEH also continues to facilitate latrine and sanitation programs, English language classes, an adult literacy program, and a community fish farm project.