Chila Inc

What are you supporting when you support CHILA’s mission?

When you support CHILA’s mission, you are saving lives
When you support CHILA’s mission, you are alleviating suffering
When you support CHILA’s mission, you are making magic happen…

There is a magic in seeing someone smile because they finally found someone who is listening. There is magic in the relief that is felt when you help someone feel better. There is magic when you connect and engage and show someone that you understand.

CHILA is a non-profit health clinic in Chisec Guatemala and access to complex and chronic healthcare services are offered free of charge. We rely on supporters like you to help us provide access to the highest quality of care for the residents of Chisec and its surrounding mountain villages. We strive to connect our patients to having and living healthier lives.

Your gift provides:
~Access to the highest quality of primary medical care
~Medication and treatment for acute and chronic medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, etc.
~Diagnostic Tests such as blood tests, ultrasound, radiological exams, biopsies etc.
~Specialty Consults such as orthopedic, pediatric, oncology, surgical etc.
~Transportation to hospital and clinic visits in Coban (2 hours), Guatemala City (6-8 hours) and other locations
~Translator services in their Q'eqchi language
~Monthly Diabetes Clinic

And so much more….

Access to healthcare is so much more than an open clinic door. It is access to clean water, access to education, women’s rights and gender equity, food security, addressing domestic violence, access to functioning roads, transportation systems. The health of a person is reliant on so many factors that are happening in a culture and in a community. Your support is helping CHILA address the many issues that continue to affect health outcomes and access to healthcare in the Chisec community.

CHILA’s Mission:

~Provide access to high-quality healthcare for the communities in and surrounding the town of Chisec Guatemala.
~Strengthen and work with the existing community healthcare system.
~Respect Q'eqchi Maya traditions while incorporating evidence based Western medicine
~Provide all healthcare in the native Q’eqchi Maya language

~Provide patient accompaniment to medical and diagnostic appointments.
~Deliver excellence in healthcare no matter the ability to pay

Our History and Our Present:

CHILA was started by Brian Smith, MD in the town of Chisec, Guatemala. Brian served as a member of the Peace Corps in the region and witnessed firsthand the lack of access to healthcare for the population in the area. Once he returned to the United States, he changed his vocation from engineering to medicine. He entered medical school and became a physician while concurrently traveling back and forth to Chisec to build and open a medical clinic. CHILA has grown with the belief that no person should die or be denied healthcare because of where you were born. After years of providing care to many people in the region, CHILA was recognized as a nonprofit organization in 2019.

Currently, CHILA funds a small group of local medical professionals in Chisec who we pay to provide ongoing and prescribed care for chronic and complex medical conditions. Dr. Smith and a contingency of volunteer medical providers from the United States travels to Chisec annually to hold clinics in our Chisec location as well as a variety of villages in the region. During these clinic days, we see cases of varying levels of complexity. We are able to treat common ailments during these clinic days as well as establish longer term care plans for more complex and chronic issues. We provide all these services with translators who can speak in the native Q’eqchi language.