Shoulder to Shoulder is a private, non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) 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, Inc., worked with local community leaders in Honduras to form Hombro a Hombro, a grassroots, community-based, non-profit NGO 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 underserved communities in the poorest areas of Honduras.
The Shoulder to Shoulder health clinic is a key component of our program, providing primary medical care, health education and community resources for the most needy. It is equipped with 6 examination rooms, an emergency room, laboratory, X-ray equipment and dental clinic. Four full time doctors and a dentist plus a staff of nurses and assistants operate the clinic 24 hours per day.
Shoulder to Shoulder receives financial assistance from its academic health center partners, as well as from private donors, both corporate and individual. Over the past 14 years, Shoulder to Shoulder has given more than 1,000 U.S. citizens the opportunity to work side by side ("shoulder to shoulder") with Hondurans committed to improving the health and well-being of all in their communities.
Over the past decade, our two organizations have collaborated in building and operating comprehensive health centers in Santa Lucia, San Jose, Santa Ana
and San Marcos de La Sierra. These clinics provide medical and dental care to thousands of patients each year; as well, they provide a feeding center to the community with extensive, school-based feeding programs and home-based water filtration systems. Shoulder to Shoulder has also successfully initiated several other health projects in cervical cancer screening, family planning, maternal and child health, and lay-midwifery training. We have initiated the Yo Puedo Program which is a project designed to improve the self esteem of girls through entrepreneurial activities and scholarships for poor girls.
Shoulder to Shoulder is rapidly expanding as we now represent partnerships with other academic health centers in the United States working to replicate the model community health program in other rural areas. We now represent the efforts of the University of Cincinnati, Baylor University, the University of Rochester, the University of Pittsburgh, and Thundermist Health Center, all of which are initiating new Shoulder to Shoulder projects in other needy rural areas of Honduras. Other health centers are beginning to organize brigades to explore developing new relationships with communities.
Medical Missions: Band-Aid Brigades or Cure?
Developing countries enjoy a regular stream of energetic and talented health care professionals traveling to help poor countries. U.S. Academic health centers bring eager medical 
students, residents, nursing students and affiliated health students for short-term medical service. Despite this talent, goodwill and infrastructure for raising funds and in-kind donations, poor communities in developing countries rarely realize significant and sustainable improvement in their health status from short-term efforts. Academic health centers do not have the understanding, knowledge or experience required to forge long-term relationships with a needy community in the developing world.
A short-term relationship (a medical brigade, for instance) is relatively easy to organize and brings care for acute medical conditions and short-term care for chronic conditions. However, such interactions have little, if any, long-term impact on health status or community stability. A long-term sustainable relationship opens possibilities for continuity of care, health promotion and disease prevention. Long-term relationships also lay a foundation for health education, public health issues (including family planning and reproductive health), economic development, agricultural development, nutrition, improvement in schools and many other activities that impact the health of the community. It is this broader, comprehensive vision of sustainable community growth that poor communities deeply desire. Such comprehensive programs are most likely to ensure the improved health of the most vulnerable in the society: poor women and children.
The Shoulder to Shoulder Project has been successful in this broader vision and has been able to articulate and fulfill its tri-part mission:
- sustainable community health and development
- learning opportunities for medical trainees
- opportunities for reflective personal growth for group participants.
Shoulder to Shoulder
