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Cuyali Healthcare Access

Cuyali is a community located in the department of El Paraiso. The community does not have access to a local health center, which means that community members must travel to the nearest one in El Paraiso. It takes about one hour to get to the center on foot and around 25 minutes in a vehicle. This health center in El Paraiso 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. Dental care is also available to community members. 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 or Villas de San Francisco most commonly by bus or on foot. Overall, Cuyali has decent acces to the health center, though ultimately it would benefit the community to have a health center of its own.

Community Demographics

Cuyali is home to about 2,000 people and has about 600 homes, with an average of 5 inhabitants per home. It is the located near the main highway of El Paraiso and is surrounded by about 10 other, smaller communities: Los Terrones, Casa Quemada, Las Vegas, El Carbon, Las Casitas, La Union, La Ceibita, Conchagua, La Majada and Pescadero. Since the health center is in El Paraiso, these smaller communities must also travel to the center for care. They also attend the medical brigades that take place in Cuyali. 

Brigade Site Information

Since there is no local health center, brigades are held at the school. The school is large and the classrooms are close to one another, with about 9 large rooms for all the brigade stations. Doctors spend an average of 10 minutes with each patient and volunteers are able to provide 5-6 educational charlas a day.  Each brigade sees an average of 300 patients per day. Below are some pictures of the Brigade Site:

Current Community Initiatives

Currently, there are no initiatives taking place in Cuyali. However, members of a Baptist Church bring medical brigades throughout the year.

Community Health Statistics

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

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

Current Status

Last Visit: 3/20/2014

This past March, a group of volunteers from Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine visited Coyolito on their brigade.  With the help of both Honduran and US health care professionals, they saw a total of 822 medical patients over two days, as well as 150 dental patients. Patients came from 10 different surrounding communities to receive medical care on the brigade.

Visit Other Programs in Cuyali

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 Cuyali:

Dental MicrofinanceEngineeringWaterPublic HealthBusinessArchitectureCHW