Projects: Outreach Clinics

We send small teams of volunteers to rural areas where we run outreach clinics. Our trips usually go to rural northern Guatemala, to the departments of Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz and Quiche. On these trips we work closely with our affiliate Partner for Surgery (PfS), a US based NGO. PfS does all the local ground logistics for the trips and Project HANDS provides a small group of about 5-6 people to run the clinics.

These clinics are set up in outlying rural areas where the focus is to find patients who need surgery, however, we also bring a small pharmacy with us and try to help all patients who come to the clinics. The patients who require surgery are then scheduled to have their procedures done either by the next Project HANDS surgical team or other volunteer surgical teams.

The days can be long as we usually are often based in one location and then travel to the site of the clinics in the morning. This daily commute can be anything from half an hour to 2 hours and could include some walking.

Clinics can be in held in rural health centres or they may be in church halls or schools where we may have to provide cubicles for doctors by hanging up sheets. Sometimes there is electricity and running water, sometimes there is neither.

Accommodation while in the rural areas is usually in small hotels, lodges or retreats. There are usually some kinds of showers but they are usually warm at best. Transportation is in the PfS minibus. Most travel will be on paved roads but some may be along dirt ones.

In our Outreach Clinics we work closely with both Partner for Surgery, and their Guatemalan arm, Companero en Salud, whose local area managers organize clinic locations and spread information on clinic dates in the rural communities. Without Partner for Surgery / Companero en Salud we would not be able to do this work.

All participants pay their own travel and accommodation costs for these trips. Project HANDS fundraises a further $4,000 to $5,000 required to pay for all the supplies, medications and local costs.

Next Outreach clinic Trip

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