1.
Peter Rohloff, MD PhD
Medical Director – Maya Health Alliance
Harvard Medical School
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
peter@mayahealth.org
www.mayahealth.org
Storytelling as Healing: Maya Health in
Rural Guatemala

2.
Guatemala has a large Maya population (>20 languages)
There are no “services” in Mayan languages
Poor health is a nexus where many injustices converge –
“death” is the final common pathway of marginalization
Storytelling as Healing: Maya Health in
Rural Guatemala

3.
www.wikipedia.org

4.
Patients
No food
No work
No education Language barriers
Services
“Ignorant”
“Lazy”
“Unmotivated”
“Backwards”
“Rojöjmayab’ – ojmestan kan”

5.
Patients DonorsService
Illness/Wellness
Narratives
Accompaniment
Education/Policy
Crowd-sourcing
Storytelling Storytelling

6.
@watsi

7.
Short Stories
Scale
Crowdfunding
Platforms
Serials
Insurance
Motivating the
Core
Long-form
Stories
Credibility
Research/Ethn
ography