Life for those living in the rural town of Siguatepeque, Honduras, is one of chronic scarcity. The average income for Hondurans is less than $2 a day, leaving many families scrimping just to afford the basic necessities of food and shelter. When it comes to medical care, that is a resource that is simply unattainable.
Clínica Betania, a mission clinic in Siguatepeque, was founded to meet the medical needs of this poor community. Several times a year, the clinic hosts medical brigades from the U.S., who come with volunteer doctors offering free consultations and medicine to patients.
It may not seem like a week-long medical mission trip would really make that big of a difference to a community, but a brigade actually enables clinic staff to reach 6 times the number of patients it normally would during that week.
Dr. Benjamin Jivcu, an emergency medicine physician from Florida, recently participated in a medical brigade to Clínica Betania, where his team distributed MAP medicine and supplies to the community. There he saw firsthand the incredible impact that one week of service can have on the people of Siguatepeque.
“We took care of many patients that were chronically malnourished,” Dr. Jivcu reported, “adults and children alike.” The extreme poverty and lack of access to enough nutritious food has taken a toll on families. “Some children had never even seen a pediatrician or a doctor,” he said.
For patients who were suffering from malnutrition, Dr. Jivcu and his team treated them with vitamins and oral rehydration solution from MAP. “The patients were very thankful, and many of them said they don’t have enough money to see a doctor or pay for medications,” said Dr. Jivcu.
During their week of service, the medical team helped Clínica Betania reach 160 patients with MAP medicine, vitamins, and oral rehydration solution. That number represents 160 lives that were touched not just with health and healing, but with hope.
Dr. Jivcu expressed his thanks to MAP for helping support this clinic’s ministry. “The medications that MAP provided served this community well!”
