Orientation

"Part of Spain's vast empire in the New World, Honduras became an independent nation in 1821. After two and one-half decades of mostly military rule, a freely elected civilian government came to power in 1982. During the 1980s, Honduras proved a haven for anti-Sandinista contras fighting the Marxist Nicaraguan Government and an ally to Salvadoran Government forces fighting against leftist guerrillas. The country was devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed about 5,600 people and caused approximately $2 billion in damage

Population:
6,823,568 (July 2004 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 41.2% (male 1,434,555; female 1,376,216)

15-64 years: 55.1% (male 1,866,219; female 1,896,027)
65 years and over: 3.7% (male 118,404; female 132,147) (2004 est.)

Median age:
total: 19 years male: 18.6 years female: 19.4 years (2004 est.)

Economy: Honduras is the third poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The 2001 GNP per capita is only $740 per year placing it in the World Bank classification system in the poorest quartile. It has an extraordinarily unequal distribution of income and massive unemployment, is banking on expanded trade privileges under the Enhanced Caribbean Basin Initiative and on debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative."

Santa Lucia, Honduras - Background

International medicine has been a desire of mine since college, however things never seemed to come together for me to go. Now, a plane ticket to Honduras has my name on it for April 12th, less than a month away. I will be joining a group of medical students, resident physicians, and faculty physicians from family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics. It is with a renewed excitement that I try to picture practicing medicine in a radically different setting, Santa Lucia, Honduras.


The organization that I will be working with is called Shoulder to Shoulder. More information is on their website at shouldertoshoulder.org. An excerpt from the website includes:


“Shoulder to Shoulder is a private, non-profit, non-governmental organization formed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1996. It began providing health care services in western Intibuca in 1990, six years prior to its official incorporation. In the spirit of local empowerment, Shoulder to Shoulder worked with local community leaders in Santa Lucia to form Hombro a Hombro, a grassroots community-based, non-profit NGO (non-governmental organization) registered in Honduras since 1996. Shoulder to Shoulder and Hombro a Hombro work in tandem to achieve a single mission: to develop educational and health programs to help poor rural communities in Honduras achieve sustainable development and improve the overall health and well being of its residents. We seek to address the health, education, economic, and social needs of isolated communities in the Western Intibuca region.


The three missions of Shoulder to Shoulder are:
1. To provide medical and dental care, nutrition services and community development for poor communities in rural Honduras.
2. To provide faculty supervised experiences for health care providers in an international setting that enhances skills in community health, tropical medicine, cross cultural medicine and working in resource poor environments.
3. To provide a setting for reflection and personal growth through service.”

List of Needs

In preparation for the trip, the group members are collecting needed items, as identified by the current staff in Honduras. We will each be taking one suitcase of personal items, and one with the needed supplies. If you would like to contribute items or funds toward specific supplies of your choosing, please let me know.

For example:
Target has toothbrushes for $0.97 and a box of alcohol swabs in $1.59.

----
Alcohol wipes*** (*** = really needed)
Toothbrushes***
Arm Slings***

Soaps
Shampoos
Toothbrushes
Diaper cream
Baby layette gifts (infant soaps, nail clippers, etc.) (Bess told me girls would know what this means)
Newborn baby hats
School Supplies
Art supplies: paint brushes, colored pencils (box of 8), pencils, erasers, crayons
Newborn diapers, formula, receiving blankets, onesies, diaper bags/canvas bags, small baby toys
Children’s Books in Spanish (Listed on Amazon.com under Wish List for “Shouldertoshoulder “, please change address to our home)
Children’s toddler shoes (new or gently used)

Ace Wraps
Canes
Thumb spica splints
Cock up wrist splints, all sizes