Chronic kidney disease is becoming a common illness in rural areas of Guatemala and particularly for agricultural workers due to factors such as long workdays, limited access to proper hydration and work labor.

As part of our Screening & Prevention Program, Bridge of Life (BOL) is working with in-country partners to provide chronic kidney disease screenings to different agricultural workers, such as coffee farmers and banana plantation workers, in Guatemala. In March 2017, BOL and a team of volunteers traveled to Antigua, Guatemala and screened over 800 coffee farmers and their families for chronic kidney disease over World Kidney Day at Bella Vista Farm.

Read about our team’s firsthand experiences in the field, conversations with the coffee farmers and our volunteers’ own personal stories in our blog series from this mission, A Stirring Reality: Screening Guatemala Coffee Farmers for Kidney Disease. Check out the first two chapters, and stay tuned for future chapters announced on our Facebook page!

Chapter 1

“Screening in Guatemala: A Firsthand Account of the Daily Lives of Coffee Farmers,” by Katie Chandler, Program Director of Operations, Bridge of Life

Chapter 2

“True Life: I Work on a Coffee Farm,” by Jesse Casco, Patient Care Technician, DaVita Kidney Care