WHAT WE DO
Missoula Medical Aid works with rural and impoverished communities in Honduras as they seek to improve health and access to health care.
Healthy Homes and Farms
Improving living conditions and the environment
Guided by Save the Children, La Esperanza, Honduras
Missoula Medical Aid raises money to support Save the Children's rural community projects that make homes and farms healthier and more productive. The idea is that people living in a healthier and more productive place will get sick less often. We support farmers and rural cooperatives that improve family cook stoves, start small businesses, and help producers grow a wide variety of vegetables such as tomatoes, strawberries, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, cabbage and lettuce.
Early Childhood Nutrition
Making sure children in Honduras get enough to eat
Intibucá, Honduras
In many communities in Honduras, the chronic malnutrition rate is almost 40 percent. And when children between the ages of zero and six don’t get enough to eat, they are more vulnerable to illnesses for the rest of their lives.
We partner with Save the Children to fund a nutrition and early stimulation program that feeds a daily good meal to young children, and pregnant and nursing mothers, in the communities of Chiligatoro and Pueblo Viejo, Intibucá.
The food is grown in a community garden, or purchased in the local market, or donated by other international charities and distributed as part of a Honduran government program. The mothers gather daily to cook in a central kitchen. The parents are taught nutritious recipes and given classes in child stimulation and development. The children are weighed regularly, taught good hygiene, and provided a safe and stimulating preschool. The result of this program is healthier children and thriving communities.
Dental Hygiene
Preventing tooth decay, and building healthy habits
Intibucá, Honduras
During the course of a year, we provide almost three thousand children with toothbrushes and toothpaste. The children receive instruction in their schools on how and when to brush. They are given calendars to fill in to reinforce the habit. These children are the first generation in their communities to brush regularly, and by partnering with Save the Children and Honduran dental health professionals, our money goes a long way.
We also provide a weekly fluoride treatment program for all school children in the 20 to 30 communities we visit each year. The fluoride is given to the children each week by their classroom teachers.
Rural Medical Brigades
Providing health care to people who live in isolated rural areas
Orocuina, San Lorenzo and La Esperanza, Honduras
Each year we send three teams of medical providers to Honduras to give rural and impoverished communities access to basic health care.
We set up day clinics in rural schoolhouses and work alongside our Honduran partners to:
Surgical Brigades
Orthopedic Surgeries
La Esperanza Honduras
The public hospital in La Esperanza unfortunately does
not offer orthopedic services. Once and sometimes twice a year, Missoula Medical Aid volunteer orthopedic surgical teams work in the La Esperanza hospital to provide free specialized treatment. The work they do changes people’s lives.
Dental and Eye Clinics
Ongoing access to dental and eye care
The La Esperanza Lions Club Clinics
We pay the salary of a Honduran dentist to work three hours a day, five days a week, fifty weeks a year in the La Esperanza Lions Club clinic. The club provides the space, the equipment, and the clinic management.
Because this is a fully functioning dental clinic for low income patients, the government of Honduras places an intern in the clinic as well.
We also help pay the salary and training of a technician to perform eye exams and fit glasses in the eye clinic.
The Lions Club dental and eye clinics see around 2,500 patients a year, people who couldn’t ordinarily afford to go to the dentist or get corrective lenses.
Nursing Scholarships
Increasing opportunities
La Esperanza and San Lorenzo, Honduras
We partner with local nursing schools and Save the Children in La Esperanza and San Lorenzo to chose and provide scholarships for six low-income students each year.
Criteria for selecting recipients of nursing grants:
These students come from impoverished areas in Intibucá, Valle or Choluteca, and many stay and work in the government health centers scattered throughout these areas.