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La Concepción Medical Access

La Concepción is a small community with a population of 640 people in the municipality of San Matías. Due to its remote location, La Concepción has a smaller health center called a CESAR. CESAR's never have doctors on staff and typically have on nurse. Although this health center is usually staffed by a nurse year-round, it is currently under construction and therefore not in service. The closest place they can go is a nearby town called Teupasenti which also has a CESAR with only a nurse on staff.  Currently the must travel, often by foot, an hour or more to get basic healthcare.  When they do have their health center, it is understaffed for the population that it serves and the medications sent by the government are never enough to provide what the community needs. If they need to see a doctor or dentist, they must travel to San Matias, the nearest town with a CESAMO, or a larger scale health center where doctors and occassionally dentists are on staff.  Their healthcare access is therefore still limited.

Community Demographics

La Concepción is home to about 640 people and has about 144 homes, with an average of 4 inhabitants per home.  There are about 100 children under the age of 12 living in the community.  There are about 7 smaller communities surrounding La Concepcion that come to the brigades in the community, including Rio Namles, El Salto, San Jeronimo, Rio Grande, Las Crucitas, Ajuijote, and El Espinito.

Brigade Site Information

Since space is limited in the health center, we hold brigades at the school. The school is still relatively small, with about 4 rooms. Despite the smaller space, we always run a successful brigade. Volunteers 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 Brigade Site:

Current Community Initiatives

Global Brigades completed a water system in La Concepción in June 2012, but has not been able to implement any other community projects there since.  PDA World Vision is involved in this community and periodically brings medical aid, but only for the children in the school. Otherwise there are no current initiatives going on in this community.

Community Health Statistics

Below is a chart showing the illnesses treated on our most recent brigade to La Concepción.

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

Current Status

Last Visit: 6/16/2015

This past May, a group of students from the Temple University traveled to La Concepción for their Medical and Dental Brigade.  With 28 student volunteers and the help of local community volunteers, they saw 979 medical patients from 2 different communities over 2 days, in addition to 101 dental patients.  They were able to help provide over 14 hours of health education to children and adults in the community.

Visit Other Programs in La Concepción

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 La Concepción.

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