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El Ocote Healthcare Access

El Ocote is located in the mountainous province of Francisco Morazán. El Ocote is in a hilly and rocky region dotted with rivers and streams.  Due to the altitude, the weather is generally of mild with warm days and cool nights. Thus, community members must walk roughly two hours to the community of Canta Ranas to see a medical professional. Unfortunately, the health center often lacks important medications and community members cannot obtain them. 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. On occasion, community members have access to a dentist.

Community Demographics

El Ocote is home to about 300 people and has about 65 homes, with an average of 4 inhabitants per home. It is the located in the mountains of Honduras and is surrounded by about 9 other smaller communities: Trijito, Zalzal, Guaricayan, Tomatin, Bartolo, Cerro Boaito, Cofradia and Suyapa. They also attend the medical brigades that take place in El Ocote. 

Brigade Site Information

Since the nearest health center is far from El Ocote, brigades are held at the local school.  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

There are currently no additional initiatives taking place in El Ocote.

Community Health Statistics

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

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

Current Status

Last Visit: 05/16/2015

This past May, a group of volunteers from Pennsylvania State University visited El Ocote on their brigade.  With the help of both Honduran and US health care professionals, they saw a total of 496 medical patients over three days, as well as 45 dental patients. Patients came from 3 different surrounding communities to receive medical care on the brigade.

Visit Other Programs in El Ocote

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 Ocote:

DentalEngineeringWaterPublic HealthBusinesseCHW