Recent Mission Trip
Project Eden’s medical mission team, The Esperanza Team held five clinics in the San Francisco de la Paz area on Honduras, the week of February 27th, 2023. This year’s team was comprised of eight members from NH, two from MA and one from OH.
It was great to be back in San Francisco de la Paz and we were welcomed like family. The team, along with our Honduran helpers (medical and local HS students interpreting), were able to provide medical care for 814 people over the course of the week.
We held 5 clinics in different villages; Quebrada del Danto, Santa Ana, Quiscamote, Hatillo and at a barrio or neighborhood in San Francisco de la Paz.
Our clinics were set up in community centers, schools and even in one family’s home. Vision care was provided for 287 people, fitting them with 210 reading glasses and giving out 127 sunglasses for sun-related eye disease. Blood glucose tests were performed on 253 people, urine tests for infection for 6 people, plus 3 pregnancy tests and 1 Covid test were completed. Mosquito nets were given to 103 women who were pregnant or likely to become pregnant in the next year. Hundreds of toothbrushes, toothpaste, health messages and insect repellents were distributed to the people we served. We diagnosed and treated many people with diabetes, vascular disease and hypertension, some who were aware of their conditions and several who were not. We encountered several people with asthma who had no treatment despite chronic or frequent symptoms. We were able to supply each with enough inhalers to provide relief of the symptoms over the coming months. Many people were treated for gastritis, headaches, muscle aches, cough, infections and other health problems. Hundreds were treated for parasites and almost all were given vitamins.
Remaining supplies were provided to two local medical clinics whose staff assisted our team during the week. Additionally, we donated infant vitamins, prenatal vitamins, children’s vitamins and mosquito nets for participants in the maternal/child program. This program, Healthy Beginnings, was started with donations from the St. Rose of Lima Parish and St. Basil the Great 2022 and is facilitated by Project Eden. It provides nutrition instruction, prenatal vitamins, infant vitamins and food to participants with a focus on improving nutrition in the first 1000 days of life, from conception to age 2. We were very pleased to attend a meeting of this group while in Honduras and to help with the distribution of food packages for each family.
On our last day a few of us were able to go into Juticalpa to visit our loved ones at the senior home and the children’s home. John and Rosario Szabo provided transportation. We were off to shop; school supplies for the orphanage and Rosario’s school, groceries for the senior home and children’s home, and for dinner we left pizzas and soda for the children.