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Galeras Healthcare Access

Galeras is a community located  approximately 45 minutes off of a local high way near a major agricultural university in the town of Zamorano, Francisco Morazan. Galeras has a health center in the community but the government has not sent any staff or medicine to the health center therefore it is not used.  There are several other health centers close by which community members can travel to based on where they live in the community.  The closest is approximately 20 minutes away via bus and 1.5 hours away walking.  This health center is a CESAMO, the larger of the two different types of health centers that the government provides.  It almost always has at least one doctor on staff and several nurses.  They also occassionally have access to a dentist. Even though the health center is well staffed, patients still experience long waits and sometimes are not able to be seen the same day due to overcrowding.  Compared to some other more remote communities, Galeras has decent access to health care. 

Community Demographics

Galeras is home to about 1204 people and has about 237 homes, with an average of 5 inhabitants per home.  Galeras is close to an urban area, but is more removed and remote than other larger communities in the area such as San Francisco and Guinope.  Galeras is fairy spread out, so community members seek medical attention at both the health center in San Francisco and the health center in Guinope, although Guinope has a more comprehensive health center than San Francisco. Although these two communities are the closest to Guinope, there are about 7 smaller surrounding communities that attend medical brigades in Galeras.

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Brigade Site Information

Since the health center is not currently operation, the brigade clinic is held at the school.  The school is very large, with 9 full sized classrooms as well as a computer room and an office for the school director. 

The school has ample space for the brigade to run and can accommodate large groups of students.  olunteers will see an average of 200 patients per day, and doctors typically spend about 10 minutes with each patient.  Brigades are able to provide an average of 5-6 adult charlas a day, totaling about 9-10 hours of adult health education each brigade.  Below are some pictures of the school brigade site.

Current Community Initiatives

There are currently no other community initiatives going on in Galeras.  Once every few years, Galeras does receive medical brigades from Christian missionary groups.

Community Health Statistics

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

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

Current Status

Last Visit: 5/17/2014

This past May, a group of volunteers from Emory University visited Galeras on their brigade.  With the help of both Honduran and US health care professionals, they saw a total of 620 medical patients over three days, as well as 64 dental patients.  Patients came from 5 different surrounding communities to receive medical care on the brigade.

Visit Other Programs in Galeras

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 Galeras:

Dental MicrofinanceEngineeringWaterPublic HealthBusinessArchitectureCHW