Sunday, August 4, 2019

Pensando


We have now been back for a few weeks from Honduras. It was my first trip and the 8th trip since the beginning of this partnership between ENLACE and Kaiser Napa-Solano Residency. In preparing for the trip I didn’t quite know what to expect. We spent a year preparing under Emily’s guidance – fundraising, learning and planning. Learning about many of the challenges Honduras faces it is easy to feel overwhelmed. How can we meaningfully engage in 1 short week? True – a week is so short. But returning from that week now I am left with awe at the power of teamwork. It was truly a wonderful team.

It was such a privilege to work with Dr. Sevilla, Dr. Fabricio, Dra Floripe, Don Israel and the rest of the ENLACE team. There is amazing work being done every day to improve the lives of those living in and around Las Lajas and it was very cool to get to participate in that. Our group came down brimming with enthusiasm and inspiration. Progress is made by a series of small changes and I was struck by the ways improvements are being made each trip. We set up clinics in the churches in Palmichel Carmen and El Diviso and locals lined up each day to seek medical and dental care. The clinics, which had many moving parts, ran smoothly with everyone assigned to a position and implementing tools and building on lessons learned from prior trips. The under 18 crowd (Symkowicks, Millers and Deborah’s son Finn) was amazing! From running the pharmacy, to dental health education and fluoride treatments, to slime production and entertainment for waiting kids we were lucky to have such an inspired group of young folks. This year we were also excited to have Kathleen Deegan PhD, RDN (Emily’s mom!) come down to lead nutrition assessments. I got to be a part of this team and we conducted interviews to gather information about dietary staples, this year focusing on women and risk factors for anemia, but with plans to expand this project in the future.

Overall it was an amazing experience and I am so grateful that our residency program has the opportunity to participate in global health work. It was really special to go down with the entire class of residents, faculty, families, and inspired community members. Huge thank you to our incredible global health leaders Tessa Stecker and Emily Fisher!

Kaitlin Best PGY3

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