By Brendan Sieber | Co-Student Leader
We just returned from our 2018 Immersion Experience to our Honduran Partners Sociedad Amigos de los Ninos. On May 22nd, thirty one of us (18 participants, 4 recent alumni of John Carroll, and 9 faculty and advisors) traveled with 62 suitcases filled with vitamins, medications, water filters, and necessary medical supplies to rural Honduran villages. Over the span of 5 medical brigades to various mountainous villages (Valle Arriba, Las Crucitas, El Pedregal, Corral Falso, Terrero Blanco), we were able to serve over 1200 patients. One story that is a testament to the healthcare disparities in Honduras came to us in the form of a diabetic patient. When asked how he tested his blood glucose levels since he ran out of the strips we gave him last year on our brigade, he simply stated that he would taste his urine. If it tasted sweet, he knew that his blood glucose levels were high. Stories like his are the reason we were so blessed to be able to right the scales of social injustice in this world.
Specifically, in Valle Arriba we were able, through your generous contributions, to provide 125 households with a FilterofHope Water Filtration system and a water collection bucket. Before and after pictures are included below the report. The filters last up to 10 years and clean the water up to 99.9%. A video will be included below With the help of community leaders, especially Alberto, an ex-US Navyman, we compiled a list of all the local households to ensure equity in distribution. The Valle Arribans were extremely receptive to receiving the life altering access to clean water to combat diabetes and hypertension. To analyze the effectiveness of our implementation, we will use our normal health survey and data analytics that we use on every brigade to track the population's health. Such a change would not be able to be created without your contributions.
Our next project will be to expand the water filtration systems to other villages. Of all the villages we traveled to, we found excessively high rates of E. coli in their drinking water. The need for clean water is now apparent more than ever. We travel once a year to Honduras to perform the brigades. In the meantime, we will continue our donation collection in an effort to provide life sustaining care to those who truly need it. Many thanks and God Bless.
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