Una Gringa en Honduras: Thank you – Biostatistics Center and the residents of Kemp Lane

The clothing drive was a huge success! Along with the local public health center and the Municipal Women´s Office, I decided to distribute the clothing at the monthly meeting for pregnant women. Most of the women that come to these meetings live in very rural areas, and have to travel more than 3 hours just to get to the closest clinic. We decided to distribute the clothing during these meetings in order to encourage women to come in for prenatal care, where they can recieve valuable information the importance of micronutrient consumption during pregnancy. (The vast majority of women in the Copan area do not have access to such information, in fact many are illiterate.) Because of the distance and cost of traveling, attendence at these meetings has been historically low with about two women showing up on a regular basis. But recently we have had about 20 women coming to the meetings.

We divided up everything so that each woman would recieve two items wrapped up in a plastic bag. (Usually one bag would include an item of clothing and another donation such as vitamins, toys, baby shampoo, etc.) The women were very happy to recieve the supplies! Gracias!

I also gave away the children´s books to a local bilingual school where kids learn English from a very young age. The school, Dos Pinos, gives children from poor families the opportunity to learn English and therefore equips them with the tools they would need to find good jobs in larger cities such as San Pedro Sula or Tegucigalpa. Approximately half of the kids at the school are on scholarship.

Here are some pictures of the event:

People waiting outside the health center.

Here are the donations, which we divided up into plastic bags. That way, people wouldn´t get jealous of one another and could trade items later when they returned to their villages.

The doctor, Cesar Cueva, talks to the women about the importance of folic acid.