Salud Juntos was born out of the needs of the clinic of La Guacamaya, which was constructed in the wake of Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Though the hurricane impacted most of the Caribbean and Central America, it left 1.5 million people homeless and 6,500 people dead in Honduras alone. In 1999 a non-profit from the state of Washington began building houses and delivering aid to the community of La Guacamaya. Dr. Terry Tack, an optometrist from Longview, Washington, came down around the same time and began to hold a makeshift clinic in peoples homes.
The construction of the clinic began three years ago, and was finally completed in June of 2004 under the guidance of Lynn Tienken. In November of the same year the deed to the clinic was handed over to the people of La Guacamaya, making it an officially community owned clinic. From that point the official control of the clinic has been vested in a committee of 9 community members, each of which has an independent leadership role within La Guacamaya.
Over the past seven years an annual medical brigade headed by Dr. Terry Tack has come to the clinic every June for a week. They have served over eleven thousand patients with, not only vision care, but other needs ranging from dysentery to Chagas to machete wounds. Also, the Rotary International originating out of Poulsbo, Washington, who have already donated $25,000 for medical equipment, recently donated $95,000 for the construction of a water system which will deliver clean and potable water to the people of Guacamaya.
Salud Juntos began with its first brigade to La Guacamaya in January 2008. We were incorporated as a non profit in the State of Washington in April 2008.
A clinic volunteer begins an eye exam with a young
Honduran patient as part of the 2010 brigades.
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Salud Juntos has now now been directly or indirectly responsible for over 11,000 patient visits.
Brigades for January 2010
We completed two one week brigades in January. The first brigade, a vision clinic, from January 4th to 9th was led by Joseph Miller, MD an ophthal-mologist from the University of Arizona. He was joined by two ophthalmology residents, Leslie Garay, MD, and Carmen Felix Tacononte, MD. They were assisted by Laura Miller. Over the course of the week they saw 225 patients, many having unusual conditions, especially useful for ophthalmology training. During the second brigade of January Mindy Fain, MD led the general medicine brigade to Punta Ocote Jan 25-29th. She was assisted by Ana Sanguineti, MD a current fellow at the University of Arizona, and Alejandro Sanguineti, MD, a pediatrician from Tucson, AZ who conducted a children's clinic. Also participating were Sheridan Reiger, Executive Director, Becca Mandel, and Dale Reiger. Over the course of the week they worked side-by-side with the the clinic nurse and community health providers, and provided care for over 240 patients. Read more
Future Brigades Information
Terry Tack, OD will be conducting a short vision clinic in February at La Guacamaya. He will be assisted by Ruth Ann Tack, Sheridan Reiger, Executive Director and Robin Bigelow, Assistant Executive Director.
Another short general medicine brigade to Punta Ocote will be led by Mary Kay O'Neill, MD in March. She will be joined by Jeff Harris, MD, MPH. Assisting them will be Sheridan Reiger and Robin Bigelow.
Further Plans are being made for our June brigades.