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Joya Grande Healthcare Access

Joya Grande is a community located in the municipality of San Antonio del Oriente, which is about 30 minutes away from Tegucigalpa. The community does not have access to a local health center so they must walk 40 minutes to the nearest one in Jicarito, Zamorano. This local health center in Jicarito is known as a CESAR, which is the smaller of the two different types of health centers provided by the government. It is usually staffed by at least one auxiliary nurse and occassionally community health workers. 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 most commonly by bus or on foot. Overall, Joya Grande has decent access to a health center but would greatly benefit from having one of its own.

Community Demographics

Joya Grande is home to about 800 people and has about 300 homes, with an average of 3 inhabitants per home. It is the located in the mountains of Honduras and is surrounded by about 4 other, smaller communities: Suringa, Zamorano, Agua Blanca and La Estancia. Since the health center is in Jicarito, these smaller communities must also travel there to seek care. They also attend the medical brigades that take place in Joya Grande. 

Brigade Site Information

Because there are multiple schools spread throughout the community, brigades are held in the community center. The center has plenty of space for brigades and there is outdoor space for charla and Data Informatics. 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

Joya Grande does not currently have any community initiatives taking place.

Community Health Statistics

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

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

Current Status

Last Visit: 5/23/2014

This past May, a group of volunteers from Cornell University visited Joya Grande on their brigade.  With the help of both Honduran and US health care professionals, they saw a total of 679 medical patients over three days, as well as 44 dental patients. Patients came from 4 different surrounding communities to receive medical care on the brigade.

Visit Other Programs in Joya Grande

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 Joya Grande:

Dental MicrofinanceEngineeringWaterPublic HealthBusinessArchitectureCHW