AMIGA-Ann Manganaro Initiative for Guatemalan Accompaniment

In 2019, Regis University began a transformative partnership with Ciudad de la Esperanza, a community located in Cobán, Guatemala. Founded in 2003 by Guatemalan priest Padre Sergio Godoy, Ciudad de la Esperanza serves some of the region’s most marginalized Indigenous Maya families – many of whom rely on the local landfill on the outskirts of Cobán for their livelihood.

Padre Sergio invited Dr. Lauri Pramuk, a Regis alumna with extensive experience establishing medical initiatives in Guatemala, to help launch a primary care clinic for the community. Together with Regis, Dr. Pramuk brought the first group of pre-med and nursing students to Cobán in March 2020. For one powerful week, the team operated the clinic and returned home just one day before the global pandemic shut down international travel.

In the five years since, the impact has been extraordinary. Through grant funding and dedicated partnership, Ciudad de la Esperanza has constructed a two‑story clinic equipped with exam rooms, a dental suite, a pharmacy, and a laboratory. The collaboration has now supported six groups of Regis undergraduate students, along with two groups of Rueckert-Hartman graduate health care students, who have contributed to clinical operations and community health initiatives.

Each year, Regis undergraduates raise the funds needed to fully stock the clinic’s pharmacy. For the past three years, they have also secured enough support to cover the salary of a part‑time Guatemalan physician, ensuring that the community has year‑round medical care. This continuity has opened new doors: the local medical school in Cobán now uses the clinic as a training site for nursing, pre-med, and dental students. A community with almost no access to health care just five years ago now benefits from consistent medical services and is building its own professional pipeline.

This mission is guided in part by the legacy of Sister Ann Manganaro, a Sister of Loretto and pediatrician who served in El Salvador during its civil war. As a Regis undergraduate nearly 30 years ago, Dr. Pramuk learned about Sister Ann and found in her a lifelong model of compassionate service. Today, a medical center in El Salvador serves more than 50,000 people in Sister Ann’s honor.

One of the partnership’s core commitments is to help the Cobán community reach long-term medical self‑sufficiency. After 15 years of experience working in Guatemala, project leaders have learned that sustainable progress depends on maintaining a year‑round physician in the community. To ensure this continuity for decades to come, Regis University is establishing a dedicated endowment in honor of Sister Ann Manganaro.

The endowment will be known as AMIGA – the Ann Manganaro Initiative for Guatemalan Accompaniment. Its purpose is simple and powerful: to provide stable, permanent funding for medical staff serving on the ground in Cobán. Through AMIGA, donors can help guarantee that the people of Ciudad de la Esperanza continue to receive consistent, compassionate, locally rooted health care today, tomorrow, and far into the future.