San Jose Partners
Department of Family Medicine, URMC
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Sponsors
Stories from
May 2005 Brigade by Amanda Coyle:
These women and children had gathered in the center of the town of San Marcos de Sierra, the original site of the University of Rochester’s work in Intibuca, Honduras. Each member of these families walked from one to four hours to stand in long lines to be seen at the clinic, the pharmacy and Shoulder to Shoulder’s food program. They were visiting with each other before making their long way home.
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These people were waiting to be seen at the clinic in San Marcos de Sierra. This was at 7:00 a.m., an hour before the clinic opened. Posters and word of mouth, spread by town officials, would let individual communities know that a visiting medical group was holding clinic hours. Community members would start out on foot before dawn, arrive at the clinic well before it opened and wait for hours to be seen. The elderly woman in the center of the picture was one of the few patients over 60 years of age seen at the clinic, perhaps representing the shortened lifespan of rural Hondurans.
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This is a 12-year-old girl and her 12-month-old brother. Their mother was unable to come to clinic that day so sent her two children with other members of their community. The girl carried her brother on her hip for the two-hour walk to the clinic, wearing only worn foam sandals on her feet. When they were seen, she carefully explained her brother’s symptoms – fever and parasites – and was very careful to understand the prescribed treatment. The girl herself had painful, swollen knees, due to her daily workload and lack of supportive shoes.
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Maria, a 23-year-old woman and Marta, her 6-year-old daughter, arrived at the clinic late one afternoon with Maria in the early stages of labor. Maria said she had no money to pay for transportation or the hospital fee at the nearest hospital, a two-hour harrowing car ride away. Having little equipment to manage an obstetrical emergency, we were hoping Maria would labor into the next day, giving us time to arrange for transportation and money; however, and we were summoned in the night to Maria’s home, where we found her progressing well and ready to deliver the baby. A team consisting of two doctors, a nurse, and a Honduran interpreter, delivered Maria’s baby by flashlight in this bed where Maria, her new baby daughter, and her oldest daughter are pictured sitting the next day.
______________________________________________
This is Maria’s house, which she built by herself over several years, using the wages she made as a maid to a wealthy family in a town hours away from her home. Her savings paid for building materials and transportation and she would return on weekends to build the house. It is a solid structure, but has a dirt floor, no windows, doors, electricity, running water or bathroom. The cookstove is inside and unvented. The heat and light source is firewood on the floor of the gathering area. Maria’s mother cared for Maria’s first child, Marta, over the years Maria was away from home, but now extended family can no longer care for her daughters while Maria goes in search of work. The baby is Maria’s third child. Maria’s husband abandoned her, taking their middle male child with him. Maria expressed great concern about the future and how she would provide for her girls.
These women and children had gathered in the center of the town of San Marcos de Sierra, the original site of the University of Rochester’s work in Intibuca, Honduras. Each member of these families walked from one to four hours to stand in long lines to be seen at the clinic, the pharmacy and Shoulder to Shoulder’s food program. They were visiting with each other before making their long way home.
______________________________________________
These people were waiting to be seen at the clinic in San Marcos de Sierra. This was at 7:00 a.m., an hour before the clinic opened. Posters and word of mouth, spread by town officials, would let individual communities know that a visiting medical group was holding clinic hours. Community members would start out on foot before dawn, arrive at the clinic well before it opened and wait for hours to be seen. The elderly woman in the center of the picture was one of the few patients over 60 years of age seen at the clinic, perhaps representing the shortened lifespan of rural Hondurans.
______________________________________________
This is a 12-year-old girl and her 12-month-old brother. Their mother was unable to come to clinic that day so sent her two children with other members of their community. The girl carried her brother on her hip for the two-hour walk to the clinic, wearing only worn foam sandals on her feet. When they were seen, she carefully explained her brother’s symptoms – fever and parasites – and was very careful to understand the prescribed treatment. The girl herself had painful, swollen knees, due to her daily workload and lack of supportive shoes.
______________________________________________
Maria, a 23-year-old woman and Marta, her 6-year-old daughter, arrived at the clinic late one afternoon with Maria in the early stages of labor. Maria said she had no money to pay for transportation or the hospital fee at the nearest hospital, a two-hour harrowing car ride away. Having little equipment to manage an obstetrical emergency, we were hoping Maria would labor into the next day, giving us time to arrange for transportation and money; however, and we were summoned in the night to Maria’s home, where we found her progressing well and ready to deliver the baby. A team consisting of two doctors, a nurse, and a Honduran interpreter, delivered Maria’s baby by flashlight in this bed where Maria, her new baby daughter, and her oldest daughter are pictured sitting the next day.
______________________________________________
This is Maria’s house, which she built by herself over several years, using the wages she made as a maid to a wealthy family in a town hours away from her home. Her savings paid for building materials and transportation and she would return on weekends to build the house. It is a solid structure, but has a dirt floor, no windows, doors, electricity, running water or bathroom. The cookstove is inside and unvented. The heat and light source is firewood on the floor of the gathering area. Maria’s mother cared for Maria’s first child, Marta, over the years Maria was away from home, but now extended family can no longer care for her daughters while Maria goes in search of work. The baby is Maria’s third child. Maria’s husband abandoned her, taking their middle male child with him. Maria expressed great concern about the future and how she would provide for her girls.