By Abbe Sudvarg, M.D.

This year, our trip began with three days of clinic in the village of Aguacate.  The rains were unseasonably heavy, the roads treacherous, but Fernando Ugarte and his excellent Honduran teammates, who serve as our drivers, got us safely in and out of the village.  Upon our arrival in Aguacate, the community of men and women, once again, helped us unload and set up.  Miguel Manueles, our In-Country Director, and the village representative in Aguacate helped make our work run smoothly.  The wonderful men who drive us down the mountain also do our registration of patients.  They find the patients’ charts, they fill their bags with rice and beans, and they make sure each eligible patient is treated with anti-parasite medicine.

Our first day of clinic, in each community, we confine our care to the members of those communities.  We have been providing continuity to our patients, for so many years, and we are prepared with a year’s supply of their hypertension, diabetes, epilepsy and arthritis medicines.  Each family, this year, received gifts of muscle rub and eye drops—sore muscles and dry eyes are ubiquitous among these villages of people who work hard in the sun.

On subsequent days of our clinics, we see all comers—and they certainly do come.  They come down the mountain, from near and far, for the vitamins we provide to all, for the anti-parasite medicine that we provide, for the fluoride treatments that we give to their children, for the rice and beans and eggs and milk.  Many of the people, who come from distant villages, have also been coming for years.  They, too, have charts and a year’s supply of medications waiting.

The two children, Josue and Reynaldo, who we helped get their cleft lip and palate repair, are thriving. 

Seily, with her congenital hypothyroidism, never goes a day without her medicine.  The children identified last year with heart murmurs, received their echocardiograms (ultrasounds of the heart) and are doing fine.

Through the year, I am able to do virtual visits with the villagers, through the phone and service that we provide to Miguel.  This allowed us to know that Maria Gabriela was having worsening of her Parkinson’s and we were able to provide her with a stronger dose of her Parkinson’s medicines.  This also allowed us, in January, to help Marinano who broke his arm while working in the fields.

Claudia Berrios, our Honduran friend and dentist extraordinaire, was with us again this year.  Once again, this amazing woman performed over 200 extractions of diseased and painful teeth.

The Team decided that, this year, we wanted to do more formal education in the villages.  In both Aguacate and Guanacaste we had bilingual health experts, who were members of our Team, do group classes. Dr. Bobbi Lakin did a women’s health class; Mimi Rosales, who holds a Masters in Social Work, gave a talk on managing stress; and Abbie Zeron, a diet specialist, gave a class on good nutrition.  The classes were excellent and attended to overflow capacity.

Each year, our despedida (going away party) in Guanacaste, is planned by the community and is loving and fun.  The little children sang while wearing costumes sewn by the mothers—created on the sewing machines provided by Friends of Honduras.

The older children danced.  We said our goodbyes in the pouring rain, with our promise to return in July of 2024.

The first day of our mission trip was to our new village of El Portillon where our Honduran coordinator, Miguel Bautista teaches ninth grade. This makes 5 villages where we do community development. Our first project there was the new outdoor classroom, allowing the students to enjoy a reprieve from their hot, stuffy classrooms. This village is very poor and remote, yet the community is so loving and faith-filled.

On the morning of our second day we met with the clean water production team of San Marcos de la Sierra to discuss distribution and progress of the purified water delivery. It was our first visit since the installation of the clean water system in December, 2019. We found that the production team was doing a tremendous job of producing and distributing clean water to their village. Two of our villages, however are too far away to walk to San Marcos for clean water. It was decided that the production team will deliver the water by truck to these two villages

One of the highlights while we were in San Marcos was finding little eight year old Meily Michel Hernandez.  She is the little girl on the cover of the magazine she is holding from Living Waters for the World.  She was five at the time the magazine photo was taken during our clean water installation in her village.  The photo continues to be used by Living Waters.  She remembers drinking the water!  As you can see, Meily is a healthy, happy little girl. 

That afternoon we traveled the difficult, mountainous road leading to Miguel’s boyhood home in El Paterno. After greeting Miguel’s parents, we took a tour of Miguel’s home. Then his nieces and nephews took us along a narrow mountainous path to view Miguel’s coffee plantation. We enjoyed a visit with Miguel’s brother and spent time with his 15 day-old baby and cousins. The visit ended with a delicious Lenca Indian chicken soup and tortillas prepared by his mother. These photos portray typical life in our remote villages.

Sunday morning we enjoyed a leisurely morning at our hotel and in the afternoon we held meetings with our villages of Guanacaste and Aguacate. The meetings gave us an opportunity to reunite after our two year absence during COVID. It also gave us time to exchange ideas for future projects.

Monday we hiked a narrow, mountainous pathway to visit an impoverished single mother, Maria Geraldina and her daughters in the new home we funded. To the delight of the family, each one received gifts of clothes and shoes. We were treated with an apple juice toast to commemorate the special day— a day we will always remember.

Following the visit, we delivered three sewing machines to each of our villages to start our long-awaited sewing project. The sewing machines came from The Sewing Project in Columbia, Missouri.

This non-profit organization receives used sewing machines and refurbishes them— sending them all over the world. The sewing machines are encased in wooden containers packed with everything needed to sew, including eyeglasses and small gifts for the children. We’ve only been home a month and are already receiving photos of their sewing handiworks.

On our last evening, we spent time celebrating our successful trip with Miguel, our In-Country Coordinator, and his family. We gave his children small, treasured gifts. That next morning we received a photo of Miguel’s son, Miguelito sleeping with Señor Slinky, such a cherished gift!

The days of our mission trip are a story of beauty, challenge, joy and gratitude. Gratitude from those we serve, and our gratitude to be able to serve them. Our villagers thank God, Friends of Honduras, and our many donors who make our projects possible.

In 2021, between the two villages, we saw over 1000 people. This year, it was over 1200.

On the first day of clinic, in each community, we confine our care to the members of those communities. We know our patients; we call them friends. We weigh the children and compare to previous years. We check patient’s blood pressures and review the medicines that we left the prior year. We make sure that our patients with seizures get their epilepsy medicine and that our diabetics get their metformin; that the sore muscles and allergies get addressed.

On the subsequent days of clinic, in each village, we see all of the people who come for our care. They come down from the mountains—from villages near and far—asking for our help. Many have seen us for years; others are finding us for the first time. Every year, we bring more and more provisions and, we wish we had more to give.

But also, every year we see the impact we have made. Food insecurity is still a very real issue, but none of our patients are starving. The women are taking vitamins with folic acid and there have been no new babies with spina bifida in all of these years.

Every year, we put fluoride varnish on the children’s teeth and we teach about nutrition and good health. We offer the chiropractic services of our extraordinary Chiropractic doctor, Alex Gafford. We take 11-year-old Seily to La Esperanza for thyroid lab test; we take Beatriz, who has rheumatoid arthritis and is on medication, for her blood count and kidney tests. And every year we have new, identified needs that will be managed from a distance. We will help Juan, who is in his 40s, get one of his cataracts removed so that he can work better for his family. We will help two children, who have loud heart murmurs and poor weight gain, get ultrasounds of their hearts. Every year we come away with happy stories about the impact that we have made—stories of joyous success. Reynaldo, identified last year with cleft lip and palate, has had three visits to San Pedro Sula, and has had his surgery—through the generous support of Smile Train.

And we are grateful for our four young, bilingual Honduran translators—two of who are now in medical school and two of who are Nutritionists. Not only do they provide translation for our health workers who don’t speak Spanish, but they also provide education to our patients to help improve their nutrition choices. This year Jelssy Alverez, one of the Honduran medical students, took her Nike shoes off her feet and put them on Beatriz’s deformed, painful rheumatic feet, for her to keep.

Upon our return home, the work starts again. The patients needing follow up cannot be forgotten. The charts need to be organized for next year. And the funds, to continue our work, need to be raised.

The COVID pandemic created hardships throughout the world. We all endured some pain, but we learned many things as well. In our Honduran villages, thanks to constant communication, we learned that even though we couldn’t be there physically, we could continue our work and help our brothers and sisters through the crisis.

Because of quarantine restrictions, our Honduran friends could not get out and purchase any food. We were able to send funds so that food could be purchased in bulk and distributed to those so desperate to receive it. In addition to two food distributions financed by the medical team, our community development team was able to provide funds twice for the purchase of beans, rice, corn, lard, sugar and coffee. Miguel Manueles, our in-country director, formed a team and distributed these critical items in the communities.

During a visit to the village of Aguacate in 2018, we noticed the local church was crumbling and in very poor condition. We took photos and upon our return home, we raised funds to rebuild it. The community all pitched in to complete needed repairs during the pandemic, and St. Vincent de Paul Church is now restored as a beautiful place of worship.

In 2021 the community of Guanacaste also requested help to perform much-needed repairs to their church. Again, due to the generosity of our donors for this project, and the hard work of the community, Our Lady of Suyapa Church has been revitalized.

During the first year of community development in 2013, we received a photo of baby Maria Melania playing on the dirt floor of her shack-home in Guanacaste. There are many poor housing conditions in Honduras, but this one especially played on our minds. We were relieved to learn that Maria Geraldina, the mother of Maria Melania and her two sisters, were able to move into the home of a relative. However, four years later, her relatives no longer had room for them and they needed to move. Maria Geraldina had no place to go with her family. We sent out an appeal to our donors, and we were able to fund the purchase of land and the construction of a new home. On Christmas 2020 the family moved into the new home that they now own. Maria Geraldina soon put in a vegetable garden that now provides enough food for them and even some extra to sell.

Access to water is always a struggle in the villages. When the only water pipeline in a community breaks, this is a serious problem. When we heard about this situation in the village of El Paterno, we recognized the urgent need and quickly responded with our support. We purchased a mile of new pipeline, and the community pitched in to install it. Life-saving water once again flows in El Paterno.

During 2020-2021 we continued to actively support our new water purification plant in San Marcos, providing inspections, training, and system upgrades. We led a major upgrade with the addition of a sediment tank to aid in the treatment of turbid water that occurs during the rainy system. The plant initiated delivery of water to distribution points using their local taxis. We conducted site assessments in two additional communities to explore the possibility of sponsoring additional purification plants. Our partners in the Living Waters for the World Honduran network provided crucial support in these efforts. Our proudest moment occurred when we were able to provide purified water to our own medical brigade that visited in 2021!

The village of Guanacaste is the poorest of our villages and lacks even the basics for their school.  Each year we provide the students the necessary supplies and books.  Each student receives a new uniform and new shoes.  It is a joy for the children to receive these essentials and for us as well, when we see their smiles as they proudly display their new uniforms and shoes.

During the periods when COVID restrictions forced the closure of village schools, Professor Miguel went to each student’s home to deliver their schoolwork and materials. He spent time teaching the students and visiting their families.

Thanks to the WhatsApp instant messaging service, we are able to keep in touch with Miguel, our in-country director, on a daily basis. We never know what needs our communities may have for which we might be able to respond. But we are grateful to be a part of their lives and fortunate to be able to call them amigos. (20-23)

On the first day of our medical and dental clinics, five 4×4 trucks nearly overflowing with medicine, medical and dental supplies, and food traveled cautiously down the mountainous, rocky terrain to reach our first village. As the first truck approached the village, the sound of fireworks greeted us. Children lined both sides of the entrance waving balloons and cheering while the adults clapped. After the last truck passed, the children and their families embraced us with great joy. This is a scene that has played outwith the same intensity for sixteen years, and that moves us to return.

After a two-year Covid-enforced absence, our medical/dental brigade finally returned to Intibucá, Honduras in July. This was our 10th brigade to serve the people of Guanacaste, and our 5th trip to Aguacate. This year we were 24 strong—12 from the U.S. and 12 partners, including our two dentists, from Honduras. Besides our team of four doctors, four nurses, and two dentists, we were supported by five translators, four pharmacy workers, and five drivers–each performing roles critical to the success of our mission.

During our 5, 11-hour days of clinic, we again served over 1000 patients. Our last trip had been in July of 2019. At that time,we had left a full year of chronic medicines for patients with epilepsy, heart disease, hypertension and other chronic illnesses. We tried desperately to fill the gap of our absence over the last 12 months. In the fall of 2020, we had the opportunity to send a shipment of materials, including medications and vitamins, to Honduras. Sadly, many of our gifts for our patients were destroyed by hurricanes Eta and Iota. And we observed the difference that our absence made.

Nine-year-old Seily, who was born without a functional thyroid, must have missed doses of her thyroid medicine. For the first time in years, her measured thyroid blood tests were abnormal. Maria was running low on her epilepsy medicine and was again having seizures.But thankfully we made the trip this year. We were masked and vaccinated,and we had plenty of masks for our patients, as well. And when we left, Seily and Maria, and all of our other patients with chronic illnesses, were left with the medications that they needed.

Upon our return to Intibucá, we were also met with evidence of our many successes. Beatriz’s painful Rheumatoid Arthritis remains improved because of the medications that we provide. Sweet Reynaldo greeted us with his beautiful smile—thanks to the cleft lip and palate repair performed by Smile Train.

Because of the communities’ access to clean water, thanks to the cooperation of Friends of Honduras and Living Waters for the World, we saw far fewer children with the painful bellies that come from parasites. Every eligible person was treated for parasites, but the need for the medication was less desperate than in previous years.

As always, preventive health is one of our top priorities. We provide dental varnish to all the children and diligently teach about proper dental care. We educate about the dangers of excessive coffee intake, especially for the children, and the need to increase the intake of clean water. We provide vitamins and beans, rice, eggs and milk to help improve the health of every person we see. We prioritize making extra resources available to the pregnant and nursing mothers and the families with larger numbers of children.

Abbe & Marilyn organize medical records for next year!

Water System Installation Trip Report

December 2-6, 2019

The Installation of the Water Purification System

December marked the culmination of over seven years of effort in locating a water source and a willing community partner to produce purified water for the people we serve. Friends of Honduras (FoH) installed a water purification system in San Marcos de la Sierra, Intibucá, Honduras.

San Marcos was chosen because it had access to a reliable water supply, and because of its enthusiastic support for the project. The installed system produces bulk purified bottled water based upon a design developed by Living Waters for the World (LWW).

LWW trained, equipped, and supported FoH in this clean-water partnership with San Marcos. San Marcos built a facility to house the system, and FoH provided the systems components, management & operation training, and health education supporting the installation.

In three busy days of work performed by community volunteers and supervised by LWW FoH staff, the entire system was assembled, installed, connected, tested, and brought into live production. A significant advantage of placing the system in San Marcos is that it will also be able to serve the nearby villages of Guanacaste and Aguacate.

Photo Above: Operators install water tank piping

The Health Education

Living Waters for the World health education classes are taught using a teach-the-teacher style. We taught the lessons to the new teachers in the morning, and they repeated the lessons to the village students in the afternoon.

Photo Above: The students enjoying their classes

Two main concepts are emphasized: how and when to use purified water, and good hand-washing technique. The lessons are interesting, fun, and engaging.

Photo Above: UV light reveals hand-washing success

Celebrating the Water Project

Sheer joy and gratitude was shared by all during our celebration on the final day of the installation of this project. All three villages came together to celebrate the new water facility and to get their first taste of the purified water.

Photo Above: Water system in operation

Photo Above: Trained operators receive recognition

Photo Above: Village celebrates with a toast of purified water

Following the visit of our medical team in July, we returned to Honduras in August to work on community development projects.

Upon our arrival in San Marcos, Intibucá, we met a very warm and welcoming community of friends. As we went back and forth through the village, we would pass by a house with four little pals sitting on stone steps. They would call out greetings in Spanish and we would return their greetings in English. To our delight, soon they were shouting out greetings in English! These happy children brought such joy!

As we write below, we are looking forward to returning to San Marcos in December for the installation of the water purification system. We will be participating in a village celebration of gratitude for purified water and health for many more little pals and their families for years to come.

The Water Project

 Friends of Honduras has partnered with Living Waters for the World (LWW) to build a water purification and bottling facility in San Marcos. The people of San Marcos are nearing completion on construction of a building that will house the water treatment system. Thus, a primary goal of this trip was to meet with the San Marcos Water Committee to do the critical planning for the administration and operation, and of the water system, as well as for the health education surrounding the proper use and need for purified water. In LWW terms, this is called the “development” trip.

 During our three days of meetings with the committee, we made time to visit the construction site to see progress on the water building.

 We also conducted tests on the treatment system water source so that the committee members could learn concepts of water quality assessment. The tests also help us to know what type of system can be used (UV or ozone treatment) to purify the water.

Results of the bacterial contamination tests are shown, with contamination indicated (black) for the source of our water. No contamination is indicated (clear-yellow) for a small manual-pumped well nearby. 

Health Education

The health education piece of the project is taught emphasizing two basic themes:

Use of purified water  and hand washing. 

STEM/Robotics

Fulfilling a promise, we delivered seven additional LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Kits for the fledgling robotics program in the school in Guanacaste. So now with eight kits available, the boys and girls will have a much easier time building their own designs and competing with one another on design challenges. We even provided an infrared emitter ball, so the students can design a robot to play soccer! Many thanks to CBC High School in St. Louis for supplying the kits for Honduras.

Scholarship Program

The Scholarship Program provides tuition for students in grades 7-12 who would otherwise not be able to attend school past the 6th grade. 

While on our trip, we were able to meet with the principal of the school along with each of the eight students whom our program supports. We learned that all of the students walk two hours each day to and from school–except for one student who walks four hours each day. They also work in the fields or sell vegetables after school and on weekends. In spite the hardships, their education is a priority to them.

One of the students, Santos Vasquez is now in the 12th grade. He received an internship to teach beekeeping to local communities.

Another student, Yesenia Bautista is in 8th grade and wants to be a nurse or doctor.

Both have excellent grades and winning personalities. They expressed how grateful they are for the opportunity to continue their education.

St. Vincent de Paul Conferences

The St. Vincent de Paul Society (SVDP) is a lay Catholic organization that aspires to live the gospel message by serving the poor with love, respect, justice, hope and joy and by working to shape a more just and compassionate society.

For the last year, a group in Guanacaste and one in Aguacate have been in formation to become recognized as formal SVDP groups, or “conferences”. While we were there, leaders of the Honduran SVDP visited and installed both groups as official conferences.

We are very proud of them and their devotion to those in their communities in extreme poverty.

The Wedding

Miguel Manueles has been our Honduran coordinator since our work in the community began nine years ago–when he was just nineteen. During this trip, we were able to attend the wedding of Miguel and his bride, Karla, and experience a traditional Honduran wedding.

One of the wedding traditions is the Lasso Rosary placement, which signifies the unity the couple now shares.

• Smile Train international children’s charity
• Kingsway Charities medicines and medical supplies
• Americares Medical Outreach for their material contributions
• Goldsmith MediCenter Pharmacy provider of affordable seizure and arthritis medicines
• Blessings International provider of low-cost medicines for missions

We reminisced how three years ago we rejoiced when the village finally had water.

The water flows into an open cistern in the center of the village. And even though there is water, it is not clean and the flow is inconsistent. The water committee tested the water for hardness and purity to determine what system would work best. 

Equally as important as having clean water is knowing when and how to use it. Day two was focused on health education with a “teach-the-teacher” course. The course uses fun techniques such as songs, plays, and stories to emphasize proper water usage and good hand washing technique. Learning and laughter are a great combination.