The Needs of the Community: El Salvador

Insufficient income has a serious adverse effect on the general health and vitality of the population. During the civil war in the mid-1980s, El Salvador was among the countries of the Western Hemisphere most seriously affected by malnutrition. Today, the principal causes of death remain as gastroenteritis, influenza, pneumonia, and bronchitis, caused or complicated by malnutrition, bad sanitation, and poor housing. Children are particularly vulnerable to health related issues linked to poverty including diarrhea, head lice, malnutrition, and bronchial infections.

In February, 2008, FIMRC founded a clinic in the rural Las Delicias community, located 45 minutes outside of the capital city. With a population of nearly three thousand, Las Delicias sits in a beautiful valley and is divided into six sectors. Community members, as well as patients from twelve outlying communities, receive services at the clinic, including pediatric attention, prenatal and postpartum care. FIMRC works in conjunction with the Ministry of Health, the local development association and other partners on preventative health education. The main focus of the community outreach is to prevent common problems in the area such as malnutrition, gastrointestinal illnesses and respiratory infections. A majority of the health issues are due to a lack of education, scarce resources and poor water quality.




The innovative Micro Health Insurance Program (MHIP) was also launched in FIMRC’s El Salvador clinic in June, 2008. The MHIP is the world’s first non-monetary model of health insurance that incorporates health incentives with micro health insurance. The program is a holistic approach to meet the needs of an underserved population. Through an extensive health education program, participants earn health credits to purchase health-related products that would otherwise be unattainable due to a lack of resources.

Source http://fimrc.org/home.html

About FIMRC

FIMRC is a 501(c)3, non-profit organization dedicated to improving pediatric and maternal health in the developing world through the implementation of innovative and self-sustainable health improvement programs. Through its network of outpatient clinics and partnerships, FIMRC asserts a multidimensional strategy that includes clinical services, extensive community outreach efforts and health education programs.

FIMRC is a self-sustainable organization with project related funding provided from business operations – the Global Health Volunteer Program engages approximately 700 individuals annually who volunteer their time abroad and make a contribution in exchange for the experience FIMRC provides. Over 90% of FIMRC’s revenue is derived from our volunteer program.

FIMRC was founded in 2002, is incorporated in Washington, DC and headquartered in Philadelphia, PA. The FIMRC team includes over 3,000 dedicated staff and volunteers worldwide who provide the leadership and support necessary to achieve our mission of improving access to health care for children in underserved communities.

Our Vision

A world in which all children have an equal opportunity to benefit from modern medicine.

Our Mission:

1. To provide access to medical care for the millions of underprivileged and medically underserved children around the world.
We strive to accomplish our mission through the following efforts:

2. Fundraising for the construction of pediatric clinics in areas currently lacking a reliable source for healthcare. FIMRC’s foremost goal is to establish in underserved areas a facility that can serve as a center for healthcare administration to the children in that community, and as a base for our health education programs that serve to improve basic knowledge about the normal functioning body and about common diseases endemic to the area. Prior to the construction of a clinic, FIMRC mandates that a member of our Project Development Team visit the proposed site and conduct a population survey and health assessment. Follow-up visits subsequent to project initiation are also required to ensure proper use of our resources, and ultimately to monitor the clinic’s success. As continuity of care is a priority, a charting system exists in each clinic and serves to document the care each child receives over time. FIMRC’s methodology of preserving wellness is rooted in a commitment to combining incentive programs for parents and children with access to acute care and preventive measures.

3. Directly influence the health of children by encouraging and supporting individuals and groups who desire to travel to medically underserved areas of the world. FIMRC believes that better health is best achieved by direct care to those who can least access it. FIMRC organizes trips for volunteers to our clinics on an ongoing basis in an effort to supplement the care being delivered by local professionals. Medical volunteers work together to do physicals and deliver acute care as necessary. Non-medical volunteers assist with translating, administration, and a variety of other tasks. By inspiring others to become involved in global health, FIMRC aspires to broaden the level of impact in the communities we serve. To learn more about FIMRC’s Global Health Volunteer Program, please click here.

4. Encourage future health leaders to become involved in our purpose by recognizing their achievements. We encourage students to start a FIMRC chapter and participate in local community service activities as well as visit a FIMRC clinic so that they may experience firsthand the goal of healthier children worldwide – the end result of FIMRC’s vision.

Through determination and the belief that all children deserve health, FIMRC declares itself as a major force in the delivery of healthcare worldwide – one clinic and one child at a time.

Source: www.fimrc.org

Guizo, Detroit

My interest in health issues started early when I was growing up as a child in the island province of Cebu, Philippines. My hometown of Guizo has set the stage for the constant fretfulness we faced about danger, crime, and most especially, disease and illness. Memories of a playmate getting sick from floating paper boats in a drainage channel and my brother getting sick of Dengue instilled in me a sense of pitiful, passive acceptance of our circumstance, that “there is nothing we can do but live with what we have.” When my family moved to the U.S. five years ago, our assumption that immigrating would also be a ticket to good health was proved wrong when similar apprehensions were furthered as we experienced difficulties accessing healthcare. But it was only when I considered a career as a physician and started shadowing a local family practitioner, home-visiting patients around impoverished communities in Detroit, that I became committed to actively playing a role in health disparities issues.

My experiences with Dr. Jaranilla, for one, have allowed me to map out the economic geography of Metro-Detroit, where wealth and poverty exist in such close proximities. Never have economic disparities been so defined. Driving northbound of I-75 can move me from poverty to wealth well under five minutes. Secondly, I have witnessed how these geographical inequities transcend to disparities on many levels, one of which is disparities in health . Although healthcare access is all within the reach of our patients in inner-city Detroit, I have witnessed a number of inequities that still persist. Mrs. Williams, a homebound patient with foot gangrene, has been denied physical therapy service because of a co-pay issue. Mr. Emas, a wheelchair bound veteran, has been unable to diligently keep up with his appointments at the DMC due to his disability and lack of reliable transportation. Mrs. Muraszewski has complained about the predominance of fast food chains in Detroit and the subsequent lack of access to healthy food options and produce. I have learned, firsthand, that race, socioeconomic factors, disability, and the physical environment shape health outcomes tremendously.

More importantly, it enabled me to gain, firsthand, a whole new perspective about managing disease and illness. Almost all of the patients we see in inner-city Detroit have or experience symptoms to chronic diseases- cardiovascular and diabetes. I can’t help but ponder why there is such a focus on medical treatment than upstream prevention and risk assessment in managing this pervasive problem of chronic diseases in the urban poor.

Such personal encounters resonated with my life experiences of disease and illness in Guizo. I have realized that examining health issues through a social lens is as important, or even more important, than scrutinizing them under a microscope. It was through such compounding realizations that I became interested in actively playing a role in health disparities issues both in children and in the urban poor. It was also for this reason that I became interested in public health and epidemiology. I believe that examining the role that society plays in shaping health issues better equips health professionals with a well-rounded understanding as to how disease and illness should be better addressed.

From my shadowing experiences, Stacy, a 46-yearl old woman with multiple sclerosis, stood out to me. She has a good spirit for someone with a chronic illness. One time as Dr. Jaranilla and I was about to leave her home, she uttered jokingly to me, “I look forward to the day when you will be a doctor and you will be taking care of me.” She had no idea that her words moved me immensely. Such retort, to me was very powerful and inspiring. As Dr. Jarnilla and I left her house, I remember opening the door and stepping out of the porch with a strong sense of purpose. “I sure will!” I fervently responded, more determined than I ever was for a future with a great responsibility at hand.