Helping in Honduras…

Good painting, for a good cause...

The drawing for this is next Thursday, so get your ticket’s now! Leslie is helping to raise money for this trip to Honduras, and is raffling the painting of Lime Kilm Lighthouse shown at right.  Tickets are available at San Juan Healthcare and are $2.00 for 1 or $5.00 for 3 tickets.  The proceeds go directly to MMA…here’s more, from Leslie at San Juan Healthcare:

In January Leslie Mutchler (ARNP) from San Juan Healthcare is going to be traveling to Honduras with Missoula Medical Aid.  She will be going with a group of volunteers made up of about 15 doctors, nurses, and interpreters.  The group will be in Honduras for 2 weeks.  Each day the brigade will travel to a different small rural village, setting up a one-day medical clinic.  Families pour in from the surrounding area, often walking for several miles.  Working this way Missoula Medical Aid sees around 200 patients each day. For many of them it is the only health care they receive.

The group performs basic exams, and addresses the concerns of the Hondurans.  Missoula Medical Aid (MMA) leaves them with basic supplies that you and I would consider negligible such as aspirin, eyedrops, vitamins, etc.  They provide antibiotics and stronger medicines for those that need it, and can refer seriously ill people to a local hospital.    MMA works with Save the Children in Honduras, who helps with the logistics of setting up the clinics, and arranging for transport to referrals.

MMA also does longer-term health work, which is so basic it is hard to believe.  They put chimneys into houses to relieve the cooking-smoke complications that are seen in eyes and throats.  They leave supplies of vitamins and irons to address the chronic deficiencies that affect most Hondurans.  They also work on education farmers about using new techniques because many have been burned or harmed by using strong pesticides by hand.

In order to be more fiscally responsible the volunteers “rough it”.  They take personal items in one carry on bag, so they can carry supplies, medications, and other equipment in checked luggage.  They sleep in cots in the office of Save the Children, or in the courtyards or local Hondurans, and shower with buckets of water.  Most of the areas where they set up clinics do not have electricity, so they use headlamps and natural light from the windows in order to see.

MMA is a small organization with no office or full time staff.  MMA is a non-profit organization so your contribution is tax-deductible.  If you prefer, you can make a donation written out to MMA and give to Leslie at San Juan Healthcare, or you can donate online at missoulamedicalaid.net.  If you choose to donate online please add Leslie Mutchler when it asks for reason for donation, so that she will get credit.

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