In early February, an exuberant team sent by the Society of the Good Shepherd dove into our newest clinic project: the building of a dialysis clinic in Taulebé, Honduras. The team was only in Honduras for nine days, but they made incredible progress during the time they were there, laying a little over 1000 concrete blocks. And this was despite difficult weather conditions. They had to do more preparatory dirt work than normal, or else they could have laid even more blocks.
Before leaving, these workers turned the project over to a local Honduran construction team, who will bring the building to completion. The municipality of Taulebé will be paying most of the wages of these Honduran workers, but the Society will be paying for all the building materials.
There is quite a backstory to this present project. It began with José Rodriguez. José’s parents came to the United States when he was thirteen. José eventually became a U.S. citizen and obtained an advanced degree in the U.S. He went to work for NASA as a biomedical engineer. After his time with NASA, José worked in setting up dialysis clinics in various places, and he acquired enormous expertise in this field.
A number of years ago, José moved back to Comayagua, Honduras to take care of his mother. Comayagua is a short distance away from Siguatepeque, where our Honduran directors all live. José decided to stay in Honduras. He soon became aware of the terribly deficient state of dialysis care in Honduras. Few, if any, of the dialysis clinics in Honduras meet even the basic international standards for dialysis care. José told us that to require dialysis care in Honduras is basically to “receive a death sentence.”
One day José was meeting with the mayor of Taulebé, Denis Membreño. During his time there, he noticed that Denis’ adult daughter, Lourdes, had a vascular access device on her arm. José recognized that this indicated she was receiving dialysis care. This led to an extended conversation about building an up-to-date dialysis clinic in Taulebé that would meet international standards and surpass in quality any of the existing dialysis clinics in Honduras.
José told Denis that he had connections to be able to acquire the equipment for the clinic. He could also give technical advice on the needed plumbing and water filtration requirements. In addition, he could provide training for the doctors and nurses working at the clinic. But he could not supply the building. Since Denis had cooperated in many projects with the Society, he suggested they contact us to see if we would be willing to build the two-story structure that would house the clinic. We told them that we would be delighted to do so.
While the clinic is being built, José has already been at work locally to provide the proper water supply for the dialysis equipment. The clinic will have its own deep well, with advanced plumbing and a water filtration and purification system that will use reverse osmosis.
We want to thank all our donors, who have made it possible for us to construct this building. At the same time, we have a HUGE prayer request for our readers. While the structure is being built, José is also going to be hard at work to obtain government funding to pay for the doctors, nurses, and other staff and operational expenses to keep the clinic running. This month, he will be meeting with the national Congress of Honduras to set forth his plans. Fortunately, José is a personal friend of both the president of Congress and with the President of Honduras. So, with these connections and with God’s blessings, he can hopefully obtain the needed government financing.
However, José already knows that the government does not have the funds to provide the actual dialysis chairs and machines. So he is going to be contacting the various manufacturers of dialysis equipment around the world to see if they will donate some of the machines needed. From his past work, José already has personal contacts with many of these companies. So please pray that God will bless his efforts. The new clinic is designed to house 30 dialysis machines. One of the manufacturers has already promised to donate some machines. Please pray that God will move the hearts of other manufacturers to do the same.
Julie Nyhoff de Valladares
The Society of the Good Shepherd, P. O. Box 122, Amberson, PA 17210 • (717) 349-7033
Click on the following link if you would care to make a donation to the work in Honduras: Honduras Donations