In May, Brigade members, Carrie Alexander, Betty Martin, and Mary Ellen Gannon traveled to Honduras to spend time in the remote villages. After a physical absence since February 2020 due to COVID, the goal was to visit the communities sponsored by the Brigade and provide education to the Community Health Workers.

Recently, the Brigade was invited to a Washington Post Live event featuring conversations with leading health experts on the issues of health equity, vaccine access, and the disparities that have come into focus since the start of the pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Brigade has learned to serve from afar by raising money for equipment and PPE not only for the hospitals but for the major COVID-19 triage center in Comayagua. Last year, we sent a 40-foot shipping container filled with donated and purchased COVID-19 related equipment and supplies to Comayagua.

Modern healthcare is a minefield of challenges. Patients lack access to care, choose between food and medication, struggle with high deductible health plans, or have no insurance at all. Clinicians are stretched thin by exhaustive documentation requirements and dispersed geographic coverage yet obligated to provide the highest quality medical care.

Under the guidance of volunteer Dr. Dean Smith, the VHC Medical Brigade is embarking on its first telehealth pilot for cataract surgeries on our upcoming November 6-10 Surgical Brigade trip to Honduras.

The VHC Medical Brigade mourns the loss of Elizabeth Koop, MS, CRNA, known to all as Betsy. She was one of the original volunteers in the Brigade and a founding member of the Rural Village Project (RVP), which has provided clinics, clean water and health education to communities in remote areas of Honduras.

In an October 2020 report, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development noted there was “substantial evidence that middle and low-income countries have been largely priced out of access to Covid-19 related products.”¹ Among those less fortunate countries is Honduras.

Armed with machetes, five Hondureños make their way up the face of El Montañon – The Big Mountain. It’s the dry season in Honduras, and it’s hot; the men keep to the edge of a stream, sometimes singing, sometimes talking, but never resting. Two hours into their hike, they find their destination blocked by tropical vines and dense jungle growth. They get out their machetes.

Despite the inability to travel to Honduras during this pandemic, the VHC Medical Brigade continues to seek ways to provide for our partners in Comayagua and in the remote villages. Most recently, our team sent a 40-foot container filled with donated supplies and equipment from our warehouse in Virginia for use in local hospitals (La Paz, Hospital Escuela, San Benito Jose, and Sta Teresa) and in clinics (El Ayudante and RVP clinics).

I have the privilege to serve communion with my pastor to homebound members of our congregation. One of these folks is a man named Don Fahl. He is confined to a wheelchair as a result of a serious motorcycle accident that occurred about twenty-five years ago.

As we continue to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been so grateful for the ongoing support we’ve received. And while this difficult time has meant we’ve had to change how we’re doing things, we can still report our water projects and healthcare work in Comayagua is moving along!

Over the past week, we were able to deliver food donated by Pack Away Hunger, sterile gloves and oxygen cannulas to our partner hospital Santa Teresa; medications like acetaminophen, zinc, prenatal vitamins and more, donated by the Brigade and Vitamin Angels, to our three mountain clinics; and install a new vaporizer on the anesthesia machine at Santa Teresa.

In February, as part of the of the Remote Village Project continuing education program, Gysella Muniz, MD and Betty Martin, RN, along with Nelson Martinez, spent the day with eleven Community Health Workers (CHWs) from the villages of Planes, San Antonio and Vera Cruz in Honduras.

“I see you are wearing glasses,” Lora said excitedly. “And your eyes,” she continued with amazement, “your eyes are BLUE!”

As Lora looked up from the operating table into Dr. Sarah Merrill’s face, her elation at being able to see was unmistakable.

When Kenny and his mother showed up one morning last November for his physical therapy appointment, they both looked quite bedraggled. 

Omar commented almost apologetically on his own condition - living with colostomy bags and a catheter for five years since a motorcycle accident that crushed his pelvis - when Dr. Ranjit Pullarkat asked him why he’s here this Monday morning for surgery at Hospital Santa Teresa.

Among the poorest of the poor in Honduras, this patient will probably tell our surgical team, as others like him have told our teams in past years, “I have been praying for you every day - for years.”

We are excited to feature an emergency medicine training in partnership with Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH) and Project Semilla this November.

We train community health workers through a curriculum developed by the Brigade that is customized to address the most common diseases they face. The result is that residents have access to services that otherwise would not be available.

Our rehabilitation team met a 27-year-old woman with severe disabilities through our partnership with the Comayagua Rehabilitation Center (CRIC).