VCOM 2018 Annual Report

Global Communities We Serve

Honduras

I n partnership with the Baxter Foundation, VCOM assists with the operation of the James Moody Adams Clinic (JMA) in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. This clinic serves an especially impoverished area of Tegucigalpa, offering primary care, gynecological care, prenatal services, dentistry and pharmaceutical needs. The clinic will support four VCOM students as a rotation site and is scheduled to undergo a renovation soon. Additionally, the clinic serves the students and families of an adjacent theological college, the Baxter Institute. The JMA Clinic serves approximately 40 patients daily, and also offers a nutrition and training center

that assists families of children that are evaluated as malnourished. This nutrition program, which includes supplemental food baskets along with education by a nutritionist, has a high success rate. In addition to serving Tegucigalpa, VCOM faculty and students provide prevention and primary care services to rural villages and communities outside the city. Patients with more serious conditions are referred to the JMA Clinic for follow-up or continuing care. A recent partnership with Misson UpReach expands the geographical reach of VCOM medical outreach work even farther to include the mountainous, coffee-growing

regions of Santa Rosa de Copán. For many of the residents of these regions, this is the only opportunity for healthcare during the year. A VCOM-affiliated program called “Hope to Walk” has resulted in more than 200 prosthetic fittings for leg amputees. Other efforts in the area include a vocational center that provides career skills for youth, also provided by Mission UpReach. VCOM also offers first responder training for the ministry students at the Baxter Institute, as well as a gift of a backpack containing first-responder medical supplies and equipment to graduating class members.

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