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Other Communities Served by El Zurzular's Medical Brigades: Los Trigales and Palo Verde

El Zurzular Healthcare Access

El Zurzular is a community located high in the mountains near
the municipality of Cantarranas in Fransico Morazan.  Due to its
remote location, El Zurzular has a smaller health center called a
CESAR. CESAR's never have doctors on staff and typically have
on nurse.  The nurse staffs the health center Monday through
Friday traveling from her home in Cofradia, about a 45 minute
drive.  The health center is open from about 7am to 3pm.
Therefore, their access to healthcare is very limited, not even
being able to get care on weekends and not having access to
doctors.  If they need to see a doctor or dentist, they must travel
the mountainous terrain to Cantarranas, 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 4 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 Zurzular is home to about 600 people and has about 125
homes, with an average of 5 inhabitants per home.  El Zurzular
is the center  of a larger area including three other communities:
Los Trigales, Palo Verde, and Las Delicias.  The total population
of these 4 communities is about 1,110.  Since the other
communities do not have health centers, they have to travel in
El Zurzular.  Although these are the 3 communities that pertain
to the health center in El Zurzular, there are even more
communities that visit during the brigade to receive medical care. 

Brigade Site Information

As the health center is located next to the local school, both facilities are used to hold a medical brigade. The school is  relatively small, with about 2 large rooms and 2 smaller roomes. Despite the smaller space, we always run a successful brigade.  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 210 patients per day. Below are some pictures of the Brigade Site:

Current Community Initiatives

El Zurzular was the first community to be inaugurated as a holistic community in 2012.  As the community is holistic we visit once a year with a medical brigade.  El Zurlular has 11 community health workers trained by Global Brigades, Dr. Bruce Chevez. CHW's are trained on topics such as first aid, how to treat chronic patients, family planning, pregnancy care, burn and wound care, and how to respond in emergency situations.  These skills will help them provide a higher level of healthcare to more community members and relieve some of the workload for health center employees.  They will serve 4 different communities in the area. To learn more, visit the El Zurzular CHW Page.

Community Health Statistics

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

Community Dental Statistics

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

Current Status

Last Visit: 1/15/2014

This past January, a group of students from the John's Hopkins University traveled to El Zurzular for their Medical and Dental Brigade.  With 19 student volunteers and the help of local community volunteers, they saw 628 medical patients from 7 different communities over 3 days, as well as 71 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 Zurzular

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:

 DentalEngineeringMicrofinanceWaterPublic HealthBusinessArchitectureCHW