HOMBRO A HOMBRO

En Espanol

Hombro a Hombro is a non-profit NGO legally registered in Honduras since 1998 but operating under the sister U.S. organization Shoulder to Shoulder since 1990.  It represents a successful partnership between the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, the City of Cincinnati, the Ministry of Health of Honduras and most importantly, the Community Health Board in Santa Lucia, Intibuca.  Since 1994,, the partnership has worked “shoulder to shoulder” resulting in the following services/facilities:

(a) The Hombro a Hombro Medical Center:  a state of the art medical clinic that  operates 24 hours per day with two Honduran physicians, and a supporting staff providing care for acute and chronic illnesses including minor surgeries and obstetrics.  We also have a laboratory, radiology services and a small inpatient facility for caring for patients overnight.  In order to maintain adequate records, all patients and diagnoses are registered in a computerized data base and medical records are kept for every visit.  In addition, the Honduran doctors and visiting physicians frequently visit the elderly and the chronically ill in their homes. 

In addition, over 2000 Honduran and US volunteers have participated including medical students, residents, faculty physicians, nurses, dentists and various others- teachers, hydrologists, carpenters, lab technicians and nursing students.  Participants volunteer their time and finance their own trips.  The short term medical brigades are very active in promoting our Child Health Initiative. ( see home page, projects)

The Hombro a Hombro Health Committee, who are all local community members, support and supervise all of the activities conducted by the medical team and the visiting teams.

(b)  Dormitory: A large housing facility adjacent to the clinic allows for up to 45 people to stay in Santa Lucia.  The dormitory has beds, showers and a kitchen large enough to feed the group of 45.  Not only does this allow us to house visiting medical brigades, it has been extensively used to host conferences and training seminars; e.g., in 2001 the Minister of Health held a conference for 60 regional and national health officers highlighting the value of community based health initiatives.  Other conferences including numerous training sessions for village midwives and health promoters, conferences for schools and churches and other regional health seminars have been held in the clinic.

(c)  Oral Health Program:  Our clinic has a modern, well equiped dental program for acute, preventive and restorative dentistry.  Hombro a Hombro employs a full time dentist and full time dental assistant who provide most of the preventive dentistry services.  Visiting teams of dentists from the U.S. have volunteered their services three to four times per year.  In addition, Hombro a Hombro provides daily fluoride to school children who live in the most isolated communities and uses extensive fluoride varnish in its outreach program conected to the Child Initiative program. .  This project is coupled with the nutrition program described below.  

(d)  Nutrition Program:  Hombro a Hombro has a rural school feeding program that feeds 1800 school children per day who are living in very isolated communities.  Hombro a Hombro requires communities to form parent organizations that will build school kitchens, provide fuel for cooking and volunteers for preparing and serving the food. We are developing an extensive under 5 feeding program, the age where nutritian is most important.

(e) Water:  Hombro a Hombro with the help of a hydrogeologist, has developed a program that makes home-based water filters that can be constructed for less than 200 Lempira and are made with locally available materials.  Microbiological testing has confirmed that the filters render water pure and safe to drink.

(f) Education:  With the assistance from a grant from the US Department of State, a program to help improve the self-esteem of girls by supporting small entrepreneurial projects in their local communities has been established.  Teachers were required to teach the girls a basic applied business math course and help the girls to form clubs.  The clubs elected girls to lead the projects which included the production of basic embroidery items, growing gardens and even the opening of several small community stores.  The girls not only gained valuable experience in running small businesses, they also gained confidence and a desire to continue their education. Nineteen girls/boys are now receiving scholarships from Hombro a Hombro to attend high school.

Outreach: 

Hombro a Hombro has been working with many other communities to help improve the care of the poorest in the area.  Examples include:

• Continued community development, health brigades and midwifery training programs in Santa Ana
  

• Health brigades to Camasca, Magdalena
  

• Health brigades and rural outreach programs (medical, dental and nutrition) in Magdalena
  

• Health brigades in San Marcos de La Sierra and other outlying villages
  

• Community development, nutrition program and medical brigades since1999 in San Jose, Yoro

 

Teachers and Students from Las Marias Girls Project	Community Members and Shoulder to Shoulder Personnel in Camasca
Children at the school in San Francisco, Magdalena, enjoying the food from the Hombro a Hombro feeding program	Local midwives at the Hombro a Hombro Dormitory learn to assess high risk pregnancy

Shoulder to Shoulder receives invaluable support from numerous partners. The Department of Family Medicine at the University of Cincinnati provides extensive medical, administrative, and educational services.  Twice a year the Family Practice Department leads a delegation of volunteer physicians, residents and medical students to Honduras to provide primary and specialty medical care and to enhance the educational exchange between the local and visiting physicians.  Generous pharmaceutical companies keep the clinic pharmacy stocked with essential medications and other businesses donate needed supplies ranging from medical and dental equipment to construction materials.    In Honduras, the La Ceiba Bi-Lingual School, Sandra Payne, Principal, has been for many years providing translators to our medical/dental teams.  These translators are students with high academic standing at the school who many times opt out of family vacation time (especially at Easter/Santa Semana in April) to travel to our sites to provide this much needed service.   Most importantly, countless individuals contribute time, labor, expertise and money toward the success of Shoulder to Shoulder.