WHAT WE DO

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.

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.

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.

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:

• provide basic health exams for up to 5 thousand people annually, and provide referrals and funds to help with follow-up care for approximately 150 of our more seriously ill patients

• conduct approximately 300 women’s health consults and cervical cancer screenings

• distribute hundreds of thousands of vitamins, and hundreds of pairs of reading glasses

• provide referrals and leave funds to help give our more
  critical patients access to further exams and treatment

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.

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.

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:

• The student’s desire to study and graduate
• Community work performed
• Economic need

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.