MG2010 Midwest: Mano a Mano International Partners

El Choro is a small community high in the Andes Mountains, located 4 hours west from the city of Cochabamba. The community came to Mano a Mano in Bolivia almost 10 years ago, in October 2001, to request a clinic for their village after seeing our clinics in other communities and the high level of healthcare provided. Their wait is finally over, and we will begin construction on their clinic this year. Like all of our projects, we are building the clinic in partnership with the community and its local government - we provide the skilled labor and construction materials, El Choro residents provide volunteer unskilled labor, and the municipal and national government agree to add the doctor and nurse salary to their budgets within 3 years of completion of the project. The Bolivian Health Ministry establishes the clinic as the official health center for the community, making our clinic eligible to be covered under government health programs, including free care for expecting mothers and children up to 5 years old. Supplies are always available in Mano a Mano clinics through our Medical Surplus Distribution program in the US.

Mano a Mano clinics average 1,800 square feet in size and include: a waiting area, exam rooms for the physician and the nurse, between two and seven inpatient beds, a delivery room, an education room, a kitchen, a patient bathroom, a dental office in some clinics, and living quarters for the medical staff. Each clinic is staffed by a Bolivian physician and nurse who have been trained to provide health care in remote rural settings. Within three years of opening, community leaders learn to manage the day-to-day operation of their clinics which will have achieved financial independence of Mano a Mano by that time.

Mano a Mano finds that by providing comfortable living space, a clean, well-equipped clinic, and an excellent continuing education program it is able to attract and retain competent, dedicated staff in spite of the remoteness of clinic sites. Dr. Carlos Moises Guevara Retarnozo, a doctor working in a rural Mano a Mano clinic, had this to say when asked why he chose to work in a Mano a Mano clinic despite its remote location:

"I heard from a nurse friend that there is no problem in getting supplies to use in treating patients, that the personnel in the Cochabamba office are available by phone every day to help with difficult cases, and that doctors receive more training from Dr. Ortuño, who is very supportive. In most clinics in Bolivia, you can’t get supplies, the building starts to fall apart and nobody responds; you are totally on your own. I have found everything that my friend said about Mano a Mano to be true and am very happy to be working in this clinic. I travel to Cochabamba to the office once each month and feel that I am part of a big family that is Mano a Mano."

To date, Mano a Mano has:

• Constructed 105 clinics throughout Bolivia (99 of which are financially independent)
• Shipped 2.7 million pounds of surplus medical supplies and equipment from the US to Mano a Mano clinics and other Bolivian healthcare organizations
• Had 2.2 million patient visits
• Provided vaccinations to 328,529 Bolivians
• Delivered 11,181 babies

The difference that a clinic makes in these communities is dramatic; of the 11,181 child births attended by Mano a Mano, 11,131 babies and all mothers survived. These mortality rates are a huge improvement over the rural average - 894 babies and 56 mothers would have been expected to die.

Help us add El Choro our network of clinics and provide more Bolivians with access to healthcare. Having access to healthcare saves lives!