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Cuesta Grande Healthcare Access

Cuesta Grande is a community located in the municipality of Tatmubla, about 45 minutes away from Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. The community has access to a local health center that is at most a 20 minute walk for community members. This local health center is known as a CESAMO, which is the larger of the two different types of health centers provided by the government. It is usually staffed by at least one doctor and several nurses. Should a visitor to the health center require more medical attention than can be given at the center, community members can travel to the hospitals in Tegucigalpa most commonly by bus or on foot. Overall, Cuesta Grande has a decent health center that is readily accessible.

Community Demographics

Cuesta Grande is home to about 1,515 people and has about 340 homes, with an average of 5 inhabitants per home. It is the located right after the main entrance to Tatumbla, a mountainous and forrest-like terrian. The community is surrounded by about 5 other, smaller communities: Terreno Blanco, Macueliizo, La Sabaneta, El Achote and Suyatillo. Since the health center is in Cuesta Grande, these smaller communities must travel go there to seek care. They also attend the medical brigades that take place in Cuesta Grande.

Brigade Site Information

Since space is limited in the health center, brigades are held at the school. The school is on the smaller side and the classrooms are close to one another, with about 2 large rooms for triage and consultation, a small kindergarten room for Dental, a communal center for pharmacy, and plenty of outdoor space for charla and Data Informatics. The health center is used for our OB/GYN station. Doctors spend an average of 10 minutes with each patient and volunteers are able to provide 5-6 educational charlas a day.  Due to the small size of the community, each brigade sees an average of 150 patients per day. Below are some pictures of the Brigade Site:

Current Community Initiatives

There are currently no initiatives taking place in Cuesta Grande. However, once a year, an organization called Funder works with the Caja Rural (community bank) on various projects.

Community Health Statistics

Below is a chart showing the illnesses treated on our most recent brigade to Cuesta Grande.

Below is a chart showing the dental procedures performed on our most recent brigade to Coyolito.

Current Status

Last Visit: 5/6/2014

This past May, a group of volunteers from University of South Florida visited Cuesta Grande on their brigade. With the help of both Honduran and US health care professionals, they saw a total of 448 medical patients over three days, as well as 67 dental patients. Patients came from 5 different surrounding communities to receive medical care on the brigade.

Visit Other Programs in Cuesta Grande

Global Brigades strives to implement a model of Holistic Development in communities through a system of collectively implementing health, economic, and education initiatives to strategically meet a community's development goals. Learn more about the other programs being implemented in Cuesta Grande:

Dental MicrofinanceEngineeringWaterPublic HealthBusinessArchitectureCHW