According to the WHO (World Health Organisation), there are between six and seven million people in the world infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease, and most of them are in Latin America. The disease can be cured if treatment starts soon after infection, and in chronic patients, antiparasitic treatment can prevent or slow its progression and prevent transmission, for example from mother to child. 

This is precisely the case of Maureliana Caballero: a Paraguayan woman who, thanks to the training promoted by the Probitas Foundation, decided to test herself for Chagas disease and, when the result was positive, to start the treatment that cured her. Maureliana has now successfully completed her treatment and she is a health promoter in Dos Palmas, a small community in the Paraguayan Chaco. "As a child, I heard about the disease, but I didn't know about the contagion," she explains. Thanks to the training, she learned about the devastating effects of the disease, underwent the tests and began to follow the indicated treatments. The health centre accompanied her throughout the process, answering her questions and answering her concerns. 

Maureliana Caballero, along with other women promoters of the area, works in nearby communities raising awareness about how to contract the disease and the importance of getting tested. In the talks, she explains her experience, the need to follow the treatments and how to prevent infection. She began her work in 2023, with the kick off of the Probitas project, and during 2024 she will continue educating and informing the scattered population of the Chaco. In addition, Maureliana visits pregnant women, detects sick or malnourished children, helps with vaccinations for children and accompanies the elderly who are unable to travel with their chronic treatments. It is the hard but rewarding work of a health promoter in these latitudes.  

"Maureliana's story is the story of millions of women around the world. They are the ones who look after their communities’ health as volunteers, midwives or health promoters. The involvement and conviction of women like Maureliana with Chagas disease, prevent many infections and, even better, deaths", says Anna Veiga, Director of Fundación Probitas. 

Discover Maureliana's testimony