El Canton Healthcare Access
El Canton is a community located in the mountains near the
municipality of Teupasenti in El Paraiso. With the help of
Architecture brigades El Canton now has a CESAR health center
located in the center of the community. CESAR's typically do
not have doctors on staff , only nurses, however El Canton
currently has a doctor completing her social servcie staffing the
health center. The health center is open from about 7am to 3pm.
When there is only a nurse available and a community member
needs to see a doctor or dentist, they must travel the to
Teupasenti, the nearest town with a CESAMO, or a larger scale
health center where doctors and occassionally dentists are on
staff. The trip can take up to 3 hours on foot. Although there is
a bus that comes to the community, it does not come very
often and costs money that many community members
cannot afford.
Community Demographics
El Canton is home to about 450 people and has about 75 homes,
with an average of 6 inhabitants per home. El Canton is the
center of a larger area including three other communities:
El Cumbre, El Chilito, Las Uvas, El Jute, Carrizal, Veracruz, and
Matasanos. Since the other communities do not have health
centers, they have to travel in El Canton. Although these are
these communities that pertain to the health center in
El Canton, there are even more communities that visit during
the brigade to receive medical care.
Brigade Site Information
Medical brigade use the El Canton health center as their brigade site. The health center was designed with brigade structure in mind and therefore is very condusive to running mobile clinics. It is a 2 story building with 6 rooms and a large open meeting area. Doctors spend an average of 10 minutes with each patient and we are able to provide 4-5 educational charlas a day. Each brigade sees an average of 226 patients per day. Below are some pictures of the Brigade Site:
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Current Community Initiatives
El Canton was inaugurated as a holistic community in October 2014. As the community is holistic we visit once a year with a medical brigade.
Community Health Statistics
Below is a chart showing the illnesses treated on our most recent brigade to El Canton.
| Illness Type | # of Cases |
| Common Cold | 156 |
| Respiratory Problems |
188 |
| Gastrointestinal |
111 |
| Ears, Eyes, Nose and Throat |
217 |
| Dermatological |
53 |
| Systemic |
0 |
| GenitoUrinary |
15 |
| Chronic | 55 |
| MusculoSkeletal | 100 |
Community Dental Statistics
Below is a chart showing the dental procedures performed on our most recent brigade to El Canton.
| Extraction Patients |
59 |
| Total Extractions |
92 |
| Filling Patients | 20 |
| Total Fillings | 41 |
| Fluoride Treatments | 204 |
| Children in Charla | 204 |
| Dental Charlas Given | 18 |
Current Status
Last Visit: 5/6/2015
This past May, a group of students from McMaster University and London, Ontario traveled to El Canton for their Medical and Dental Brigade. With 36 student volunteers and the help of local community volunteers, they saw 496 medical patients from 8 different communities over 3 days, as well as 60 dental patients. They were able to help provide over 20 hours of health education to children and adults in the community.
Visit Other Programs in El Canton
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 El Zurzular:
Dental
Engineering
Water
Public Health
Business
CHW
| General Overview | |
| Population | 450 |
| Number of Houses |
75 |
| Student Volunteers* |
138 |
| Health Center Type |
CESAR |
| Brigade Site |
Health Center |
| Most Common Illness | Eyes, Throat, Nose, and Ears |
| Most Recent Brigade Date | May 2015 |
| Additional Information |
| General Community Profile |
| Medical Methodology |
| Dental Methodology |
| Pre-Brigade Lesson Plans |