Grounds for Health is an international non-profit organization founded to provide women’s health care services to coffee-growing communities in Mexico and Central America. Their mission is to create sustainable and effective cancer screening programs with a primary focus on the early detection of cervical cancer, a leading cause of death among women in these areas.

• Cervical cancer is the number one cause of cancer deaths in women in areas where there is limited or no access to health services. Hundreds of thousands of women die every year from this easily preventable disease.
• Cervical cancer is almost always fatal if it is not detected and treated.
• We can cut the rate of cervical cancer by more than 50% by providing low-cost screening and treatment services to women in coffee-growing communities.

To realize this goal, Grounds for Health collaborates with regional coffee unions, community members, and local health care professionals to increase awareness about cervical and breast cancer and to improve the existing cancer prevention infrastructure.

History
Grounds for Health began as a unique partnership between American companies and the coffee-growing communities where they do business. The idea was born in 1996 when Dan Cox, president of a U.S. coffee company, became interested in giving something back to the local people.

Traveling in Mexico with a doctor friend, Dan learned that the rate of cervical cancer in Mexico and Central America were among the highest in the world. Alarmed by this fact and knowing that cervical cancer is both preventable, and when caught early, one of the most treatable cancers, he decided this was a problem he might be able to do something about.

Working with a local Mexican OB/GYN doctor they set out to improve cervical cancer screening in the Oaxaca region. With the support of coffee-related companies, volunteer cytologists and pathologists began making regular trips to the area in order to provide on-site training and interpretation of Pap smears. What started as a nice idea evolved into a comprehensive program to address this devastating, but treatable disease.

Screening & Treatment
Screening Grounds for Health began work in 1996 in Pochutla, Oaxaca. It expanded services to the nearby town of Pluma Hidalgo in 1998 and set up a site in Huatusco, Veracruz in 2000. Before the arrival of the Grounds for Health team, there was very little cancer screening done in these areas with no outreach to women in the more remote communities. Any screening that was done was hampered by questionable cytological accuracy and poor delivery of results.

Recently, Grounds for Health met Doña Rosa who is 50 and one of the fortunate women to travel and participate in the week-long campaign in Chiapas, Mexico to have a Pap smear. Although her Pap was only slightly positive, it brought her to the clinic for the next step in the process, a diagnosis.

Doña Rosa was lucky because Grounds for Health’s campaign offers comprehensive care going beyond her Pap smear result. Asked if she had any other problems she wanted to discuss, she showed swollen areas in her groin, elbows and neck. Grounds for Health’s volunteer pathologists did an immediate simple biopsy and within minutes had the result of advanced lymphoma, a cancer of the circulatory system. Because Rosa enjoys general good health, her prognosis is good for a cure. Plans are in process for treatment at the regional hospital where cancer services are provided.

To date, Grounds for Health has screened more than 11,000 women. An average of 500 to 1,000 women are seen in each of its week-long campaigns. The screening results have documented a rate of abnormal Pap smears two to four times higher than that of the U.S., and a rate of invasive cervical cancer more than 30 times higher than in the U.S.

Vision for the Future
This year, Grounds for Health will be exploring partnerships to bring cervical cancer screening to new sites in Mexico and Nicaragua. That Grounds for Health is exploring opportunities to bring screening to Nicaragua is especially exciting to Peet’s because of our long-standing relationship with Las Hermanas and the potential to extend our support to this incredible sisterhood of women in new, meaningful ways.

We have enjoyed a wonderful partnership with Grounds For Health for several years now and we invite our Peet’s family to join us in supporting their ongoing work. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of thousands of women, their families and their coffee-growing communities.

Here’s how you can help:
• Make a donation to Grounds for Health
• Learn more: visit www.groundsforhealth.org

GFH volunteers join forces with Mexican doctors and nurses to
assure another successful campaign.

Mother's are the guardians of the family's health and well being.



Women arrive early to assure themselves a place in Grounds for Health's campaigns, where up to 200 women are seen in a day.

Top photo: johnsillaphotography.com

All other photos courtesy of Grounds for Health.