The community hospital in Comayagua is among the many buildings damaged by the two hurricanes of last November in Honduras. The high winds and torrential rains of the hurricanes damaged the already dilapidated roof of the section that houses the hospital’s medicines and supplies. Flooding also caused water damage throughout the building. When we heard this, a group from the Society of the Good Shepherd drove to Comayagua (30 miles from our base in Siguatepeque) to inspect the situation.
The government of Honduras built the original building (32 years ago), and it pays the salaries of the 8 doctors and 13 nurses who staff the hospital. The government also provides the hospital with medicines to give patients. However, the hospital has to come up with its own funds to make any repairs, expansions, and renovations to the building. Yet, it has little means to come up with such extra funds. So repairs are usually left undone. And, as the population grows, the hospital building is becoming more and more overcrowded.
The director of the hospital is Dr. Violeta Castellanos. She is a committed Christian, with whom we have worked for many years. We asked Violeta what the hospital’s most urgent need was right now, beyond repairing the hurricane damage. She told us that the most desperate need was to enlarge and renovate the maternity ward at the hospital.
Although most births in the area take place in the various community clinics, none of these clinics are able to handle high-risk pregnancies. So all at-risk mothers throughout the entire region, covering a population of about 750,000, come to the hospital in Comayagua for their deliveries. C-sections are needed for 35% of these births. So proper medical care is often a life-and-death matter for these mothers and their babies.
Yet, the present maternity ward is too small for the growing number of patients receive. Furthermore, water from the hurricanes damaged the aging floor tiles in this ward, and the faulty lighting was in major need of repairs. Nurses had been complaining that they were having difficulty hooking up IVs because of the dim, inadequate lighting. In addition, there was no place in the hospital for the doctors or nurses to change from their street clothing to their uniforms. So they have to change in the publicly used restrooms, which increases the risk of contamination.
Dr. Violeta and the other doctors had prayed about obtaining an enlarged, renovated maternity ward for the hospital. In fact, they had an architect draw up plans for this renovation, along with a cost estimate. They were now waiting and praying that God would provide the means to build it. As it turned out, the estimate was within the Society’s budget, so we told Violeta that the Society would be able to build the renovated maternity ward.
A brother from the States volunteered to come down to do the needed electrical work. And the local directors of the Society hired a crew of skilled Honduran workmen to do the rest of the construction. The electrical work is now all finished, and the construction crew has been working throughout March and April. We are hoping to have the renovated maternity ward fully up and running sometime in July.
The people of Honduras thank all of you who have made this life-saving renovation possible.
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