Happy Holidays from the HHA family!

The HHA first-years took a much-needed break from studying the cranial nerves to kick off our fundraising campaign for the 2013 trip.  We spent an evening sharing a potluck dinner and stuffing envelopes for family, friends and past donors. After winter break, we will take a class with public health students in which we will prepare our health education talks, coordinate trip logistics and learn about the cultural context of the communities we will engage with. We have big shoes to fill, and are looking forward to strengthening the relationship that UNC has built with these Honduran communities for the past decade! 

We appreciate all of your support! If you would like to make a donation, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/HHAUNC

Potluck and Holiday Card Fundraiser!

HHA first-years!

A little bit about us:

Front Row (starting from the left):

Jordana (Jordy) Laks graduated from Tufts University in 2012, majoring in Biology and Community Health. As a Spanish-speaker with experience leading medical service trips in Guatemala, she is excited to return to Central America bringing new medical skills. Through HHA, Jordy is looking forward to learning about the health care system in Honduras and collaborating with fellow medical and public health students.

Desiree Coutinho graduated from Furman University in 2010 with a major in Biology and Latin American studies. Before starting at UNC she volunteered in a hospital in the Dominican Republic for a year and spent another year at a small non-profit.

Back Row (starting from the left):

Liza Lichtenfled took a circuitous route to medicine. She studied history and economics at Dartmouth College, worked for a writer in Chicago, spent a handful of years conducting urban planning research in Spain, and apprenticed in a bakery in Chile—all before pursuing medical school.   Liza has an irreverent and generous spirit and is quick to crack a smile. Aside from her studies, she can bake a darn good chocolate cake and run 6 miles slowly.  She is thrilled to be participating in HHA. 

Tyler Warmack graduated from UNC with a degree in Economics and then joined the Peace Corps in Ecuador for two years. After the Peace Corps he finished his medical school prerequisites and is now excited to not only be in medical school, but also to be returning to Latin America with HHA! 

Kyle Roedersheimer graduated in 2009 from Clemson University and for the past three years taught high school Chemistry in inner city Charlotte, NC. He is passionate about helping underserved communities and is very excited for the trip to Honduras. That coupled with his love for the outdoors makes this a perfect experience for him this summer!

Jackie Lee graduated from UNC Chapel as a Biology major in May 2012. As an undergraduate she studied Spanish and is looking forward to using and practicing her Spanish language skills to deliver medical care in Honduras a member of HHA!

Christina Olson graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a major in Global Studies in May 2012. She has served as an interpreter for SHAC clinic for a number of years and has worked on public health projects in Malawi and Mexico. She is excited for the opportunity to work to engage with women’s health, utilize her Spanish and work with such an inspiring group of fellow students!

Thank you to all!

The 2012 HHA Team

Thank you to all of our friends, families, and donors for your unbelievable support.  The Honduran Health Alliance 2012 team had an extremely successful trip this year, and we could not have achieved what we did without the generosity and kindness of so many.

The official count is in, and we saw 333 women in clinic and reached over 400 women with our charlas on domestic violence, nutrition, birth control, and cervical cancer.  We provided 140 women with a full year's supply of oral contraceptive pills, in addition to administering numerous Depoprovera injections and inserting IUD's.  We performed over 200 pap smears, and provided follow-up care for 20 women who had abnormal pap results or irregularities found on exam. And finally, nearly a third of the women seen during our clinic week were new patients who had never been served by the Honduran Health Alliance before.  

The organization itself and the number of women we are accessing are growing immensely.  The work we are doing in Honduras is truly making a difference.  Over the past ten years, there has been a notable shift in the way these rural women are able to make decisions regarding family planning.  There is now a sense of empowerment and a new-found comfort in prioritizing discussions of maternal health and women's health in general. 

The opportunities for medical students, in terms of clinical training and medical Spanish, are equally impressive.  Each student saw over 50 patients in one week and received an unbelievable crash course in not only patient care, pelvic exams, pap smears, and clinical presentation -- but also in methods of diagnosis (empirically and through microscopy), database entry, and pharmacology.

Please continue to follow the Honduran Health Alliance in the upcoming years.  We are so excited to see how this project will continue to grow!  The remaining supply inventory has been documented and stocked in-country.  But next year's crew will need just as much support and generosity!

Supply queens.

Please stay tuned for photo updates to the website, in addition to a video compilation that is currently in the works!  Thank you again for all of the love and support!!!  That's a wrap for this year!

..."Cheque."

Results are in!

The HHA team was able to take a much needed break as we were waiting for pap smear results to come back from ASHONPLAFA in Tegucigalpa.  We spent a day or two in the nearby city of Choluteca, where we were able to visit some local markets and stock up on supplies.  Then we headed to Amapala for two days to unwind with some sunshine and some hiking.

The mini vacation was perfect.  Amapala was beautiful... we stayed in a gargoyle themed hotel... which was definitely unique, but we were the only tourists on the island, and that made for a really relaxing time.  It was also really excellent to get to spend more time getting to know eachother.  Up until now we really had been working together as a medical team, and so it was nice to have a chance to just chat and relax.

On Wednesday we came back  to El Corpus, and Thursday morning we all set out to our respective communities to deliver results to the women.  Not only were we able to provide them with fast results, but we also laid out plans and finances to help the women that needed follow up treatment, such as ultrasounds or biopsies.

Tomorrow we are going back to the clinic one final time to do a full day of inventory on supplies.  And then early Sunday morning we hop on a bus to Tegucigalpa, where we will catch our flight back to the U.S.  It really has been an unbelievable trip, and we are so excited about the fantastic amount of experience we have received, all of the excellent work we have accomplished, and the great relationships that have developed within the HHA team. 

We will be home soon!!  Thanks to family and friends for all your thoughts and support!!

More Photos :-)

Hiking through Los Torreros after clinic

Making school desks into exam tables

Women waiting to be seen in Los Torreros

Nearly 90 women were seen on the first day of clinic in Madrigales

Elena (MS4) and Sara (MS2) take a patient history

Shan (MS2) presents to the Attending as Ben (MS4) oversees

The residents with their host family in Los Torreros

Another view from the chicken truck!

Picture update!!

On our way to clinic in the back of the truck!!

We finally got to a place with internet strong enough to post some pictures!! Photo credit goes to Ingwe! Enjoy! But there are definitely more to come!!

Side angle of the chicken truck.

Traffic on our way to work.

The Public Health Team keeping it organized!

Taking patient histories and playing with babies.

Converted school room in Los Torreros

MS2s and MS4s in Madrigales

Our fantastic Residents and Attending!

Stacy setting up a clinic bed in Madrigales

Medical students reading slides and urinalysis results to come up with a diagnosis

Los Torreros!

We just spent two days in the beautiful village of Los Torreros!  In past years, the HHA team only spent a day in Los Torreros. This year we decided to spend a night there as well so we could have two clinic days in the area.  The ride up the mountain was pretty ridiculous -- though the views were spectacular!

View from the chicken truck.

We rode in the back of the truck with all of our clinic supplies and travel packs for two and a half hours, through Choluteca and up a rocky road to the tiny mountainous village.  As soon as we got there, we set up four clinic rooms and got to work.  Our set-up was in the local schoolhouse, so a couple of the third years can say that they successfully placed IUD's with patients on clinic tables made out of school desks. 

We saw over forty patients that first day, and the community was kind enough to make us a meal for the evening.  At the end of the day we split into a couple of groups and spent the night with several different families -- hanging our hammocks in the living room.  The generosity of the people was just astounding, and we were definitely grateful for a roof over our heads!  

On our way to our host family's house for the night!

The next morning, we got up and had breakfast back at the clinic, and set up for another day.  That day closed out our week of clinic work -- and by the end we had seen over 300 patients in clinic, placed 4 IUD's, completed over 200 pap smears, gave charlas to nearly 400 women, and diagnosed and treated everything from chlamydia and gonorrhea, to women with high-risk pregnancies, to a lady thrown from her horse in front of the clinic!   

On top of that, all of us have had such a phenomenal learning experience -- from taking vitals and history, to performing physical exams independently, to making diagnoses via microscope slides, to formally presenting to residents, to prescribing antibiotics, to keeping incredibly cool in high pressure situations with very limited resources.  We also have created such an excellent working and traveling relationship, and it has made this project so rewarding on many different levels.

Now we are awaiting pap smear results before heading back to our communities later this week!  Stay tuned! 

Quick check-in… Power is back! (Wednesday Post)

Sorry for the delay in posts!  The power has been out since this past weekend in El Corpus.  The past few posts were written in a Word Document, so please catch up on what we’ve been up to!  We finished our third clinic day, and we now have seen women from Espaveles, Guanacaste, and Papalon.  The last two days were definitely calmer than the first – we saw fifty to sixty women each day, as opposed to the ninety women on the first day!

Since the electricity was gone for the first few days, we have been spending post-clinic time updating the databases on the computers.  We stuck to paper medical records the first two days, so we have a good deal to catch up on, but spirits are still wonderfully high! 

Thursday should be another crazy day, with TWO communities to see instead of one.  On top of that, it has been a very dry winter here, so women that usually cannot make the journey due to the height of a river (between their village and Madrigales) will most likely be able to make the trip this year.  We’re ready for another big day!  And then on Friday we head to Los Torreros to set up another clinic for two days – to access the women that are further away.  We’ll check back in after Los Torreros!


And HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!! We are off to shoot off some fireworks!! 

Sparklers for the Fourth!!