In June Plenty Belize was visited by midwife Mary Kroeger, who will be Plenty’s TBA trainer beginning in October 2002. Mary discussed strategy with Plenty Belize staff, visited several TBAs in their villages, conducted two Continuing Education (CE) classes, and accompanied staff to several meetings with contacts in the Belize Ministry of Health (MOH) and other relevant organizations. One meeting was with the head of Belize Family Life Association about the possibility of using TBAs as “community-based distributors” of family planning supplies in the rural villages. The CE classes were well attended, and one of the newer TBAs openly expressed his appreciation for the regular opportunity to learn more and improve their knowledge. In addition to sharing birth stories and collecting updated numbers of births and referrals from each TBA, Mary spent time reviewing how to deal with emergency childbirth situations, especially hemorrhaging. A secondary highlight this summer was that we were able to help send the local MOH TBA trainer, Nurse Hazel Cayetano, to a major Midwifery Conference in Mexico, which she attended along with Mary.

In August two more CE classes were conducted, this time by Belizean public health professional, Cherry-Mae Avilez, and the topic was appropriate, available, complementary foods for the 6-12 month infant.