For the next ten weeks, I will be living and working in Costa Rica and Honduras with Duke University’s Engineering World Health Summer Institute, a non-profit service organization seeking to promote human development and opportunity by pursuing long-term improvements in local health care capabilities. Following a month of training in Costa Rica, my job at the Hospital Anibal Murillo Escobar in Olanchito, Honduras, will be to work with nurses, physicians, and staff in order to assess, repair, test, and return/release any broken or damaged medical equipment as well as to provide instructions for ongoing maintenance.
For the month of June, I’ll be staying in San José, Costa Rica with a host family while attending eight hours a day of intensive Spanish language class, medical equipment lecture, and equipment repair lab. Fridays will be spent in an area hospital for hands-on training and experience, while Saturdays and Sundays will remain open for Cultural Education. Following the completion of this training, the greatest challenges will remain ahead in Honduras, where I will spend the month of July working in a hospital.
The bleak reality of health care in the developing world emphasizes the importance of the work that Engineering World Health is doing in Central America. In the developing world, approximately 60% of medical equipment does not function properly. Often, these vital diagnostic and treatment tools are donated in used, working condition by well meaning charitable institutions. Unfortunately, these donations often fail to include the equipment’s operation and maintenance manuals or, more detrimentally, the donations fail to include the spare parts needed to fix minor problems as they arise. Additionally, a chronic shortage of qualified technicians prevents many repairable problems from being fixed, resulting in the waste of even the limited resources available. Engineering World Health provides the spare parts and technical training needed to begin addressing these issues.
The CIA World Factbook provides some raw perspective on the current state of affairs: the per capita income of the United States ($47,400) is about eleven times that of Honduras, and both the Honduran unemployment and infant mortality rate are more than three times ours. Also, infrastructural and environmental factors hinder development. The groundwater is not safe to drink, the power-supply is not always reliable, and there is a serious and persistent individual risk of contracting malaria or dengue fever.
Although no single-handed efforts or any one organization can alter the tragic, big-picture situation in Honduras or much of the world, I’m looking forward to contributing my share as part of this incredible learning and service opportunity!
For the month of June, I’ll be staying in San José, Costa Rica with a host family while attending eight hours a day of intensive Spanish language class, medical equipment lecture, and equipment repair lab. Fridays will be spent in an area hospital for hands-on training and experience, while Saturdays and Sundays will remain open for Cultural Education. Following the completion of this training, the greatest challenges will remain ahead in Honduras, where I will spend the month of July working in a hospital.
The bleak reality of health care in the developing world emphasizes the importance of the work that Engineering World Health is doing in Central America. In the developing world, approximately 60% of medical equipment does not function properly. Often, these vital diagnostic and treatment tools are donated in used, working condition by well meaning charitable institutions. Unfortunately, these donations often fail to include the equipment’s operation and maintenance manuals or, more detrimentally, the donations fail to include the spare parts needed to fix minor problems as they arise. Additionally, a chronic shortage of qualified technicians prevents many repairable problems from being fixed, resulting in the waste of even the limited resources available. Engineering World Health provides the spare parts and technical training needed to begin addressing these issues.
The CIA World Factbook provides some raw perspective on the current state of affairs: the per capita income of the United States ($47,400) is about eleven times that of Honduras, and both the Honduran unemployment and infant mortality rate are more than three times ours. Also, infrastructural and environmental factors hinder development. The groundwater is not safe to drink, the power-supply is not always reliable, and there is a serious and persistent individual risk of contracting malaria or dengue fever.
Although no single-handed efforts or any one organization can alter the tragic, big-picture situation in Honduras or much of the world, I’m looking forward to contributing my share as part of this incredible learning and service opportunity!
