Our team from the US in June was a group from Utah led by Jennifer Strohecker, PharmD., one of Camotan Clinic’s board members. It was an awesome week of work for everyone. The team spent 4 long, hot days going to different mountain villages. Each day they would see about 100 patients. As you can see below, we utilize remote mountain schoolhouses for our mobile clinics. These villages (called aldeas) are scattered in the mountains all around and above Camotan. Some take an hour on rough roads to reach. Many of these people would not otherwise receive medical care.
The team works in a remote mountain village schoolhouse seeing patients
Of course while our US teams often do remote mountain clinics, Camotan Clinic is always open and operating. Often one of our visiting US physicians or providers will stay back in the clinic seeing 20-25 patients a day while the rest of the team is far up in a remote aldea. Camotan Clinic remains the home base where we return every evening after a long day of work. We restock our medicines, work on follow up for patients that need it and plan for the next day. When our US teams are not present, we have medical and dental residents who work independently in the clinic Monday to Friday (and some Saturdays). These residents are an integral part of the clinic’s growth.
Dr. Gelane Workneh a physician from the US examines a young child
A wonderful part of each trip for US physicians and providers is being able to teach the Guatemalan residents who help staff the clinic. They are wonderful to work with and appreciate the quality teaching (and supplies such as an ultrasound machine!) that our volunteer providers bring. The past few years have seen this collaboration strengthen between Camotan Clinic and the local dental and medical schools. This is one more way we are working to improve the health care in this impoverished part of Guatemala.
Dr. Gisselle Espana one of our Guatemalan medical residents takes the blood pressure of a village resident
Some of the Camotan Clinic team visits with lead physicians at the Chiquimula Hospital
The end of the work week was completed with a visit to the local public hospital in Chiquimula. Camotan Clinic donated a new Butterfly ultrasound machine (and iPad to use with it) to the hospital. The hospital is the referral center for patients who live in and around Camotan (Camotan is about 45 minutes away). Often patients are sent from our clinic – or from the remote mountain villages – who need hospitalization there. The hospital does what it can but is often low on supplies and equipment. It is the goal of Camotan Clinic to grow our collaboration with the hospital in the years to come. We are partnering with a non profit to place a water purification system in the hospital this August (more to come on this soon!). And we are working on bringing a large shipping container ofsupplies from Project Cure to the hospital this year.
As for our wonderful team from Utah, they are excited to come back again. They brought medicines, clothes, supplies and made a tremendous impact. A special thanks to Treehouse Museum of Utah (treehousemuseum.org) who donated 75 Spanish books for children in the villages (see below).
Treehouse Museum of Utah donated over 75 Spanish books and related supplies for the children in the villages
Camotan Clinic is fortunate to be slowly developing partnerships with teams from around the US who come regularly. Although many of these teams only know each other from a virtual meeting or one mutual person, each team picks up where the other left off. It is a tremendous shared effort. We are grateful to have so many people from all walks of life and professions giving and serving. It is why we continue to grow.
Thank you for reading!