Short-Term Medical Mission Trips

Mission:  Honduras

Mission:  Honduras took its first medical brigade to Honduras in 1999 with about 30 volunteers.  In 2011 almost 70 volunteers went on the mission trip--doctors, dentists, nurses, EMTs, pharmacists, translators, clergy, and support personnel.  The mission trip occurs in July and lasts seven days including travel days.  When in Honduras, we split into teams; and four-five teams go to different villages each day, setting up clinics in whatever the villagers provide us--typically, the local school, a church, a community center, even outdoors.  Over the course of the week, we will see on average 2000-3000 patients.  In 2011 we treated a record 3,383 patients!  Since we began, we have provided medical treatment for over 31,000 Hondurans.

Our medical mission trip is unique in that we go to the villages of El Paraiso, most located in the mountains.  We travel in rented four-wheel drive trucks on dirt roads badly eroded by rains and sometimes impassable.  For the villagers in these communities, their mode of travel is by foot.  There are no doctors in these villages.  Therefore, they are cut off from access to medical treatment that is only available in the larger towns and cities.  We are their only access to medical care.

For the past two years we have been able to offer dental services providing tooth extractions.

As a 501(c)3 nonprofit charitable organization, we are a faith-based organization. We work with the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras, specifically the Deanery of Yuscaran; however, volunteers who go on our mission trips come from all faiths. Our visits are coordinated by the Deanery of Yuscaran, The Reverendo Dagoberto Chacon with help from Jeannie Loving from Austin, Texas, a South American Mission Society missionary who now lives in the area. Volunteer workers from the Honduran churches assist us in each village where we hold clinics. They are our hosts when in-country and take good care of us while in Honduras.

Our medical missions go to remote villages on
Honduras’ famous unpaved mountainous “roads.”

Our goal is to expand our mission trips to add smaller specialty teams to Honduras to provide acute care treatment.

Vitamin and anti-parasite medication program

Through a grant, Honduras Good Works is now providing vitamins and anti-parasite medications to 1000 Honduran primary school children.  This program is intended to improve the health of those most vulnerable, the children.  Because the rural villages of El Paraiso do not have access to clean drinking water, most of the population suffers from water-borne parasites.  Not only do these parasites rob the children of vital nutrients in the body, but children as a consequence are lethargic and more susceptible to diseases.  This is not only a health problem for children from these communities, but this affects their performance in school as well.  The vitamin and anti-parasite medication program is intended to improve the health of these children, and in so doing enhance their ability to learn in school.

Guardianas de la Salud program

We train local lay healthcare workers in El Paraiso.  Since 2007, Honduras Good Works has teamed with the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio working with Doctors Bruce and Jane Ergood and the Episcopal Deanery of Honduras to train local Hondurans from seventeen different villages.  To date we have provided training on:

• treatment of musculoskeletal sprains and strains with return demonstrations of wrappings and slings by an orthopedics technician;
• update of home births/deaths by a certified nurse midwife;
• home glucose monitoring and blood sugar parameters by an emergency room physician;
• skills assessment of blood pressure readings and glucose testing.

On each medical brigade to the area, we take for our guardianes replacement blood pressure monitoring equipment, glucometers and glucose testing supplies, wound care supplies such as bandages and antibiotic creams, ace wraps, education and patient teaching supplies, and other supplies as requested.  With all this support, the guardianes have been able to improve the health of their fellow villagers.  Often they are better supplied than local public health clinics.

At the end of each brigade, we leave all disposable supplies and medicines in Honduras.  Supplies not appropriate for the guardianes and prescription medications are left with the local public health clinic, including any leftover blood pressure equipment and glucose testing supplies.