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.


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A clinic volunteer begins an eye exam with a young
Honduran patient as part of the 2010 brigades.

 

 

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