Education Guatemala Project #58977

Supporting Nurse's Training for Women in Guatemala

by Kateri Tekakwitha Fund

Supporting Nurse's Training for Women in Guatemala

Project Report | Jul 28, 2025
Lilian Achieves Her Goal of Working in a Hospital

By Kay Sweeney/Melissa Vlach | Kateri Fund Managing Director/ Board Chair

Lilian

Lilian had dreams of studying nursing.

“I liked the career because it is a very humanistic profession. Through the attention we give to patients, we can make them feel better,” she reflects.

She encountered obstacles. Along with the rest of the world, she faced the pandemic. She tried to take advantage of technology to learn more, using all of the tools within her reach to keep learning but it affected her studies. She encountered financial difficulties but she received a scholarship from the Kateri Tekakwitha Fund, which helped her continue. Through the program she meets monthly with Karyn Choy, who gives advice to all of the students in the Kateri Healthcare Scholarship Program. Lilian says that Karyn is a big support and is always available when she needs help.

After all of these efforts, Lilian has reached her goal of working in a hospital. In this role, she strives to care for the children in the hospital emotionally and physically. She recognizes that many of them feel sad and depressed when they receive their cancer diagnosis, but she tries to give them the attention that they need to feel better. She sees how they fight the illness day by day and feels sartisfied when the children recover

She says, “It’s so wonderful to see that look of appreciation for the care that we give.”

She has the desire to use her knowledge to help her own family ,too. She is always available to help them when they are ill and make them feel better. She says they have never stopped motivating her to move forward and now she is happy that she can help them with much tenderness.

Lilian still has dreams for her future. She needs to study for two more years in order to finish her university degree. She wants to continue learning more and more in order to better help her patients. She would also like to be able to teach others. She hopes to be able to support her siblings to continue their own studies.

She is grateful to her family for their constant support and for the advice they give her about her work and about treating people well. She appreciates Kateri’s nursing program for the help it has given her.

“Thank you for the support of the entire Kateri team. I feel very grateful and fortunate to have people who continue supporting me to grow professionally,” she says.

She encourages others to keep moving forward in the face of difficulties. She says, "Life is full of many obstacles. When we are fighting for things we want in the future we can advance little by little with effort, dedication, and perserverance. We never arrive at where we want, because as we advance we continue wanting to achieve more and more things.

"Lilian is an example of the students that the Kateri Tekakwitha Fund supports. They are always striving for a better future. With your help they can achieve it.

Everything is possible with a little help from a FRIEND.

Lilian at a training with her colleagues

Lilian observes her patients.

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