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CAMO Teams Update
The patients will continue to work with Teletón to receive physical therapy and make periodic checks on fitting and comfort. All of the twenty patients participated in pre-fitting training sessions on prosthesis maintenance and physical therapy. The independence and self-esteem that each beneficiary has gained through his or her prosthesis is immeasurable. During the recognition ceremony, each participant shared how he or she was affected by his or her new prosthesis. It was a very joyous time, tinged with humor. Francisco, one of the prosthetics patients, joked about loving to dance, but not having "a leg to stand on." He and some of the other men, who hadn't been able to dance for years, got out for a whirl on the dance floor! Throughout the years we have coordinated wheelchair distributions. In recent visits we started to identify the need for a repair workshop. This need will be met through a cooperative effort by three organizations. The rehabilitation center Teletón in Santa Rosa de Copán will identify patients in need and prepare them for the wheelchairs. They also will provide the space for the wheelchair workshop. CAMO has provided funding to renovate the area that will become the workshop. Jacobo Reyes, CAMO, Honduras employee who makes the seeming impossible happen, will work one day a week on the wheelchairs and monitor the program. Wheels of Hope located in Canton, Ohio will provide the wheelchairs and parts for the workshop to refurbish the wheelchairs. Patrick Rimke, Director of Wheels of Hope, will accompany the CAMO team to assist in the development of the workshop. While we were in Teletón in Santa Rosa de Copán, eight individuals were trained to dismantle several types of wheelchairs and rebuild them from scratch. Alongside our activities with the repair workshop, CAMO volunteers, Patrick and Lynda Rimke, of Wheels of Hope and employees of Teletón conducted a wheelchair distribution to patients in need. Thirty-three patients received wheelchairs from our most recent shipment. Many of these patients were located at great distance from Santa Rosa. Many thanks to the Lion's Club of Ocotepeque; they assisted with the transportation for the patients. We were also able to provide each patient with a contact of a church of their faith if they so desired. We have great expectations for this project and believe that it will be an invaluable resource for those in need. In Honduras the awareness of breast cancer and other breast diseases is slowly growing. With that awareness comes the necessity for programs to detect and treat breast pathology. CAMO sponsored the first mammography program within Honduras's public health system in Santa Rosa de Copán in 1995. Since then, we have installed two more programs, one in San Pedro Sula and the most recent program in Tegucigalpa at the Hospital San Felipe. The program was inaugurated in February of this year. Upon review of the programs, medical professionals agreed that patient care follow-up needed to be reworked. Hospital San Felipe staff and CAMO team members laid the ground work for a Multidisciplinary Breast Clinic that involved several departments in the detection, evaluation and treatment process to assure continuity of care for breast pathology patients. The week-long cooperative planning session bore tremendously important results for patients and health care providers. Physicians, nurses and technologists from the Hospital San Felipe worked with radiologist Nancy Neubauer of Portland, Oregon and radiology technologist Bonnie Medina of Santa Rosa de Copán to formulate a protocols manual and to establish communication between the various departments involved in patient evaluation and treatment, including outpatient clinic, radiology, oncology, pathology and social work. This is the first program of its kind in the public health system in Honduras and is a very exciting step toward filling an existing gap in the detection and treatment of breast pathology in Honduras. The Multidisciplinary Breast Clinic opened its doors on November 1. As a happy aside, we'd all like to extend a warm welcome to Bonnie Medina.
Bonnie, originally from Kansas City, now lives in Santa Rosa de Copán
and for the last year has donated her time and expertise as a mammography
technologist to CAMO and local health care providers. Bonnie recently accepted
a part-time position with CAMO and will work as liaison for the breast
health programs in Santa Rosa de Copán, San Pedro and Tegucigalpa.
Welcome
to the team, Bonnie!
Rural Public Health Clinics Found in Disrepair Our belief is that access to adequate health care is at the heart of human well-being. Honduras is a two hour flight from Houston, Texas. It is the poorest country in Central America and the third poorest in the Western Hemisphere. In Honduras, over 70% of the population is dependent on an ailing public health system that is fraught with inadequacies, both in terms of poor physical plant and a limited budget which is incapable of meeting the needs of the millions of men, women and children who depend on it.  Medical
caregivers in Honduras are frustrated in their efforts to deliver even
the most basic of medical services. Every day physicians and nurses are
forced to treat their patients under conditions unimaginable to those of
us fortunate enough to have access to up-to-date health care facilities
in the United States. Imagine carrying your sick child half a day over
rough terrain to an overburdened clinic with no running water or electricity,
waiting for hours to see an exhausted nurse or doctor who may or may not
have something as simple as penicillin or the equipment to perform a basic
physical exam. This is the reality confronting the majority of Hondurans.
Central American Medical Outreach has worked for several years to improve
the quality and scope of public health care in Honduras through medical
training and the donation and continued maintenance of desperately in needed
equipment and supplies. CAMO works closely with the Honduran Ministry
of Public Health to select, formulate, and execute medical projects
throughout the country. Next year CAMO plans to launch a capital
project campaign to renovate eight public health clinics in western Honduras.
The needs are basic but pressing. Upon investigation of these facilities
we found that seven of the eight clinics roofs were unsound; most were
infested with pests such as termites and rats; and many were without adequate,
if any, electrical and plumbing systems. Our on-site evaluation was facilitated
by western Honduras's Ministry of Public Health director Dr. Efrain Aguilar.
A team of local contractors, physicians and CAMO staff traveled to each
location for a detailed analysis of structural and equipment needs. The
clinic renovations vary in complexity- and cost range from $10,000-$45,000
each. Our goal is to unify efforts
and maximize resources with the help of U.S. civic and church groups committed
to sponsoring the renovation of one or more of these clinics. The role
of the sponsoring group will be to provide the financial resources necessary
for the completion of these projects and on-site participation by group
members. Basic physical plant improvements will have a profound impact
on the quality of care that these facilities can offer to patients. Simple
changes in plumbing, electricity, windows, doors and roofs linked with
the personal energy, time and resources from volunteers and sponsors are
necessary to accomplish our objectives. Active participation from your
community or church group is vital to the success of this project.
If your group is interested in participating or receiving more information
about this project please contact us at the CAMO office.
Hurricane Mitch Relief Efforts Wrap Up Work continues in Pespire, Choluteca through the Work continues in Pespire, Choluteca through end of this month to finish up a highly successful cooperation between CAMO, Salvation Army, Perspire's priest, Padre Iván, and many community members. According to CAMO volunteer Kelley O'Toole, "yards were filled with up to eight feet of sand, dirt and garbage dropped off by the flooded river. " When the CAMO team arrived to begin work in Pespire, community members were just working on the foundations at the first site Now more than three-fourths of the approximately 120 houses have been built at the three sites. " CAMO volunteers worked five to six days a week for three months, first in Team members worked with housing recipients eight hours a day, hauling a constant supply of sand, gravel and rock for building materials.
The heavy equipment was brought in through CAMO in late January thanks to many U.S. businesses and individual donors. The equipment helped speed the construction process immensely, with five to seven dump-truck loads of materials per day going to housing project sites. The front loaders on site helped distribute materials and load the dump truck at the collection sites. If any readers out there know what it's like to load a five cubic meter dump truck full of building materials in mid-summer by hand, you can imagine what conditions would have been like without the front loaders! Work is now wrapping up in Pespire and 120 families left homeless from Hurricane Mitch are now blessed with secure, sturdy brick houses away from the flood plain of the Choluteca River. Kelley summed up the general feeling of the team: 'It was exciting to work with these projects and see the progress after such devastation. Temporary shelters for 82 families from the community formerly of Isla de la Boca del Rio Viejo were completed last month. As many of you read in our September newsletter the island, off the Pacific coast of Honduras, had been heavily damaged from a tidal wave and the entire village was forced to relocate to the mainland. CAMO volunteers worked for three months to help organize the community and provide them with food, medicines and shelter. Isla community members and CAMO volunteers worked for several weeks to raise the structures and ensure that all families were protected from the heat and rain. CAMO team members also worked closely with local and international organizations in the planning stages for the construction of a permanent town site. Isla village members are currently working with Caritas to build permanent housing. For all those interested in reading more about CAMO's disaster relief efforts, a detailed report will be released at the end of the year. The report will be placed on our website and also available upon request here at the office. Volunteers Continue to Make Important
Contributions to CAMO's Stateside Work
Oakland, Maryland's yearly Autumn Glory Festival was the site of a great fund-raising event for CAMO. The Garrett County Medical Building and Ace Quick Lube donated parking space and volunteers collected parking fee proceeds from the Autumn Glory parade day. Many thanks to Dona Alvarez, Lisa Rook, Cindy Harsh, Bill Welsh, and Dave Markgraf for coordinating the fund-raiser! Thank you to anyone reading this newsletter who has already sent
support. As always thank you for your continued prayers and support. This
newsletter is only being sent to supporters of Central American Medical
Outreach. If you know of someone who would be interested in our project
please share this newsletter.
February/March of 2000 Team Preview
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