By Valerie Boucher | Director of Development and Administration
Cape CARES has spent this past year planning our return to Honduras. After halting our operations for over a year, Cape CARES Board of Directors has decided to return to our San Marcos clinic in October 2021. We plan on sending a small but mighty team of veteran volunteers who have all agreed on extending the trip to a full 7 days of seeing patients. Our hope is to see the most vulnerable patients from 22 surrounding villages. An advanced team is arriving 3 days before the actual brigade begins, to set up the clinic, restock our pharmaceuticals, and ensure covid safety protocols are in place. We have hired 15 local Hondurans to help with patient flow and social distancing. All American volunteers and Honduras workers will be fully vaccinated and be in full PPE to protect themselves and the patients. The amount of planning that has gone into ensure the safety of our patients and volunteers is admirable to say the least, however, the cost of it all is skyrocketing.
After donating all of our PPE and pharmaceuticals in 2020 to the local hospital, Hospital Escuela, Cape CARES clinics are bone dry. Ensuring covid safety protocols are in place which includes: extra water, tents for shade so people can socially distance while waiting to be triaged, PPE for volunteers and staff, hired staff to help with patient flow, and so much more. These necessaties are making our trip cost very high in comparison to what they were just a year and a half ago.
We have been traveling to Honduras for over 30 years, six or more times a year, and we are egger to return to see patients who depend on us for medications and treatment. We are in need of your help to face this humanitarian crisis and get back to our patients in Honduras. Our medication and supply cost, which are already skyrocketing due to pharmaceutical costs continuing to rise, have increased as we try to replace everything we once had in stock.
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