Jeff Heck, MD

Honduras: January 2005

 The January 2005 Honduras Brigade of Shoulder to Shoulder was filled with a large variety of projects, numerous day trip clinics to remote communities, a four day stay in the community of Los Pinares, and work in the permanent Shoulder to Shoulder Clinic. There were a total number of 46 brigade members from Brown University and Thundermist Health Center in Rhode Island; Wake Forest University; UNC-Greensboro and UNC-Asheville in North Carolina; and the University of Cincinnati in Ohio.

 The brigade consisted of people from a variety of educational backgrounds including physicians, nurses, medical students, social workers, medical anthropology, dentists, and teachers. This diverse group was very successful in providing care in the day clinics of El Aguila, Los Llanitos, Agua Sarca, and San Jose as well as in the clinic in Santa Lucia. Numerous projects were initiated on this brigade including partnering with the Reicken Foundation to explore the possibility of building a community library, an extensive follow-up on a number of on-going projects including the Yo Puedo Project (a project to improve the self esteem of girls through entrepreneurial activities), follow up on a project to improve the resources of the most rural schools and partnering with the World Food Program to distribute food to poor community schools.

 The Josephson Foundation provided $5000 of support these efforts. Shoulder to Shoulder and the Josephson Foundation both believe in the value of medical volunteerism. Participants can expect to:

 Photos

 (left) Dr. Jeff Heck and Dr. Julie Thurlowe with Christina Martinez who has benefited from the Shoulder to Shoulder Project for years.