Impacting Health

Healthcare that goes
where it's needed most.

Teams of volunteer physicians, surgeons, and nurses travel to Guatemala year-round — running full one-week clinics and surgical centers that bring real care to communities with no other access to it.

Join a Team
Guatemala. A volunteer medical team provides care during a one-week clinic.
16,631Clinic patients servedLifetime total
1,158Life-changing surgeries performedLifetime total
2,984Clinic patients in 2025Record clinic year
227Surgical patients in 2025Most-ever in one year
The Context

Where access to care is not a given, it becomes transformative.

Across rural Guatemala, geographic, economic, and systemic barriers keep families hours — sometimes days — from a clinic, and even further from a specialist or a surgeon. Conditions that are routinely managed elsewhere go untreated here for years.

IEP's Health Pillar closes those gaps by bringing essential services directly to the communities that need them. Volunteer expertise combined with strong local partnerships keep care accessible, consistent, and impactful — not a one-time event, but a year-round commitment.

Health is not an isolated service. It is the foundational condition from which people can build everything else they hope for.
IEP Mission · Strengthening Communities
See It For Yourself

The work, in motion.

Watch IEP's health pillar in action — clinic weeks, surgical centers, and the moment quality care reaches someone who has gone without it for years.

How We Serve
01 / PROGRAM
Medical Clinics

One week. Hundreds of patients. Real care.

Volunteer physician teams travel to Guatemala throughout the year to run fully operational one-week clinics — providing primary care, dental, pediatric, maternal, and chronic-disease management for hundreds who would otherwise have no access.

  • Primary care and acute illness treatment
  • Dental extractions and preventive care
  • Pediatric and maternal health services
  • Vision and eye-health screenings
  • Diabetic Club — ongoing follow-up for patients with diabetes
  • Medication distribution and referral coordination
02 / PROGRAM
Surgical Centers

Surgeries that change the direction of a life.

Board-certified surgeons, anesthesiologists, and perioperative nurses travel to Guatemala to perform life-changing procedures — often for conditions that have gone untreated for years — in a setting built on dignity and clinical rigor.

  • General and abdominal surgery
  • Orthopedic and musculoskeletal procedures
  • ENT and head & neck surgery
  • Gynecological and urological procedures
  • Pediatric surgical care
  • Pre- and post-operative support and follow-up
03 / THE MODEL
A Year-Round Presence. Not A Single Trip.

Care that returns, again and again.

Multiple teams deploy each year across clinic and surgical programs. Patient records carry forward, referrals close out, and a consistent local team holds continuity between visits — so a clinic week becomes part of a relationship, not an isolated event.

  • Multiple clinic and surgical teams deploy every year
  • Patient records maintained across returning teams
  • In-country staff handle intake, translation, and follow-up
  • Referrals closed out between visits, not abandoned
  • Trust built mission by mission, year after year
16,631Clinic Patients — Lifetime
1,158Surgeries — Lifetime
227Surgeries — 2025
Impact by Year
1,640Clinic Patients2017
144Surgical Patients2017
1,784Total Patients Served2017
StartFoundational year2017

The foundational year — IEP's health pillar established, with 1,640 clinic patients and 144 surgical patients served.

3,029Clinic Patients2018
114Surgical Patients2018
3,143Total Patients Served2018
+85%Clinic Growth vs. 20172018

A major scale-up — clinic volume jumped nearly 85%, with 3,029 patients seen across the year (still the highest single-year clinic total).

2,974Clinic Patients2019
184Surgical Patients2019
3,158Total Patients Served2019
184Most surgeries pre-COVID2019

Sustained high volume — 2,974 clinic patients and the highest pre-COVID surgical year at 184 procedures.

0Clinic Patients2020 — COVID-19
0Surgical Patients2020 — COVID-19
PausedTravel program suspended2020
—Resumes after pandemic2020

The volunteer-travel health program paused entirely during 2020 due to COVID-19 — the only year in IEP's history with no clinic or surgical missions.

0Clinic Patients2021 — COVID-19
0Surgical Patients2021 — COVID-19
PausedTravel restrictions ongoing2021
—Resumes 20222021

Travel restrictions continued through 2021. Programs returned the following year as conditions allowed.

1,300Clinic Patients2022
127Surgical Patients2022
1,427Total Patients Served2022
RestartPrograms resume2022

The restart year — clinic and surgical missions resumed, with 1,300 clinic patients and 127 surgeries.

2,037Clinic Patients2023
124Surgical Patients2023
2,161Total Patients Served2023
+57%Clinic Growth vs. 20222023

Momentum returns — clinic volume grew over 57% from the 2022 restart year as volunteer capacity expanded.

1,728Clinic Patients2024
140Surgical Patients2024
1,868Total Patients Served2024
140Surgeries Performed2024

A steady year — 1,728 clinic patients and 140 surgeries — as the program continued to rebuild capacity.

2,984Clinic Patients2025
227Surgical Patients2025
3,211Total Patients Served2025
RecordMost surgeries ever in one year2025

A landmark year — 2,984 clinic patients (the highest since 2019) and 227 surgical patients, the most ever in a single year.

939Clinic Patients — YTD2026 Jan–May
98Surgical Patients — YTD2026 Jan–May
1,037Total Patients — YTD2026
MultipleTeams still scheduled this year2026

2026 is underway with 939 clinic patients and 98 surgical patients served through May. Additional teams are scheduled across the remainder of the year.

Clinic Patients by Year — All Time

Each visiting team runs a full clinic week. Programs paused entirely in 2020–2021 due to COVID-19 (shown hatched), then restarted in 2022 and climbed back to 2,984 clinic patients in 2025.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
Clinic patients
COVID-19 program pause
How It Works

A model built on access, dignity, and continuity.

Each team that comes to Guatemala is part of a larger, consistent system — not a one-time event. Here is how the program works, from recruitment through follow-up.

01

Volunteer Teams Recruited

Physicians, surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, dentists, and support staff are recruited and vetted into teams. IEP coordinates scheduling, logistics, and team composition so every clinic and surgical week is fully staffed and equipped.

02

Travel to Guatemala

Teams travel to Guatemala, where IEP's established presence creates a trusted environment for care. Local staff and community health workers handle coordination, translation, patient intake, and follow-up.

03

Clinics Open & Care Begins

Each clinic team opens to the community for a full week — general medicine, pediatrics, dental, obstetric care, ophthalmology, prescription distribution — serving hundreds of patients across the week.

04

Surgical Centers Operate

Surgical teams set up operating theaters, anesthesia, sterile processing, and recovery support — performing procedures that may have been needed for years and giving patients an outcome they couldn't otherwise access.

05

Follow-Up & Continuity

Care doesn't end when a team departs. IEP's local team handles monitoring, medication management, and referrals. Patient records carry across returning teams — continuity is built in, not bolted on.

06

Year-Round Cycle Continues

Multiple teams deploy each year across both programs. Each visit builds on the last — turning healthcare from a rare event into a reliable part of community life.

What This Looks Like in Practice
A Note from the Field

The difference a week can make — when access finally arrives.

A woman travels hours by bus to reach an IEP clinic during a volunteer week in Guatemala. She has lived with a condition for years — sought care before, but the nearest surgical facility was beyond reach geographically, financially, logistically.

Within days of arriving, she is evaluated, scheduled, and operated on by a board-certified surgeon. A week later she returns home — not simply treated, but free of pain, free of limitation, and free to plan ahead.

"She told us she hadn't slept comfortably in years. When she woke up after surgery, her first words were about what she'd do when she got home. That's what access to care looks like."
IEP Medical Volunteer

It is not an exceptional story — it is the everyday one. Across 16,631 clinic visits and 1,158 surgeries, this is what IEP's health pillar does: week by week, team by team, patient by patient.

One of thousands. Every team visit creates hundreds of encounters that would otherwise never happen.
Health Stories

More from the people we've cared for.

Recent updates and patient stories from clinics and surgical weeks across Guatemala — published as they're written, straight from the field.

View all health stories
Get Involved

Your skills can go where they're needed most.

IEP's health pillar runs on the generosity of medical professionals who give their time, expertise, and care — surgeons, physicians, nurses, dentists, and the support specialists who keep every clinic and surgical week running.

Teams depart multiple times each year, and all experience levels are welcome. IEP handles logistics, in-country support, and team structure so volunteers can focus entirely on the work of care.

Learn more
Clinic Teams

Physicians & Internists

Primary care, diagnostics, chronic disease management, and acute illness treatment — the backbone of every clinic week.

Surgical Teams

Surgeons & Anesthesiologists

Board-certified surgeons and anesthesiologists performing life-changing procedures in IEP's fully-equipped surgical center.

Clinic Teams

Nurses & NPs

RNs, nurse practitioners, and PAs provide clinical support across every team — triaging, treating, and caring through every stage of a visit.

Clinic Teams

Dentists & Dental Staff

Dental teams provide extractions, preventive care, and oral health services many patients have never had access to before.

Both Programs

Support & Logistics

Non-clinical volunteers handle patient intake, medication management, supply coordination, and the team logistics that keep everything running.

Surgical Teams

Perioperative Nurses

Scrub techs, circulating nurses, and recovery-room nurses enable IEP's surgical teams to operate safely and efficiently each day.

Also Part of the Mission

One of three pillars. Together, they strengthen the whole.

Program Pillar

Impacting Homes

Smoke-free cookstoves and clean-water filters installed together — ~60% less firewood, cleaner air, safe drinking water. 3,529 homes equipped to date.
Program Pillar

Impacting Education

From Montessori to high-school graduation, plus vocational training and the BookTuk® mobile classroom — hundreds of students educated each year.