Good stewardship goes beyond just using donor gifts wisely today.

MAP views stewardship as multi-generational. As a critical source for medicines such as antibiotics in the poorest communities on earth, it is imperative that we safeguard the effectiveness of these life-changing medicines for future generations.

This week we are recognizing World Antibiotic Awareness Week.

This observance takes place every November to increase global awareness of antibiotic resistance and to encourage best practices among the general public, health workers, prescribers, and policymakers to avoid the further emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance.

Dulce Maria is an excellent student. She never misses school and at just 10 years old, she is mature beyond her years.

That’s why it surprised her teacher when she had a hard time paying attention in class and began to rest her head on her desk. Soon it became apparent that Dulce Maria was very ill.

“I touched her forehead and she was hot to the touch. She said her head and throat hurt,” said her teacher, Edna Galicia. “But despite her illness, she did not want to miss school.”

Dulce Maria lives in a rural area of the Guatemalan municipality of San Cristóbal Acasaguastlán.

During the week, her mother works in a nearby town processing sugar cane, so she lives with her grandmother. But her grandmother has no cell phone and the nearest clinic is a three-hour walk away. Her grandmother watched her growing more and more ill, but there was nothing she could do.

Finally, her teacher alerted Dr. Mayra Franco at the town clinic about Dulce Maria’s condition. Dr. Mayra, as she prefers to be called, spends most mornings in the clinic and then makes “house calls” during the afternoons to the citizens living in outlying rural areas. So Dr. Mayra made the long journey to check on Dulce Maria.