Description:

Shoulder to Shoulder provides quality health care throughout the region of southern Intibuca. Our two main clinics in Concepcion and Santa Lucia form the hub for our medical services. Here, patients receive free emergency, primary, and post/neo natal care. Our diagnostic and laboratory services offer ultrasound examinations, radiology, and complete laboratory tests. They are also the centers for several of our dental, community health, education, and nutrition programs. In these facilitaties we provide housing for many of the doctors, nurses, and medical support staff that we employ, and in our dorms we can house visitors and large groups for short stays.

We also administer seventeen outer clinics, serving the underdeveloped area of southern Intibuca known as the Dry Corridor. These clinics cover the seven municipalities of Camasca, Colomoncagua, Concepción, Magdalena, San Antonio, San Marcos de la Sierra, and Santa Lucia.

Our contract with the Honduran Ministry of Health designates Shoulder to Shoulder/Hombro a Hombro as the sole medical provider for this large swath of territory. A population of 69,000 persons depend on Shoulder to Shoulder for their health and well-being.

Prior to the construction of Shoulder to Shoulder/Hombro a Hombro’s first clinic in 1994, the nearest health care facility was a five-hour bus ride over a dangerous and sometimes impassable mountain road. Today, residents of southern Intibucá can reach one of the nineteen facilities and three affiliate clinics within a one-hour walk of their home.

Research Projects

Shoulder to Shoulder and Hombro a Hombro, along with the government of Honduras and our academic and research partners, engage in major research projects. Utilizing our extensive database, infrastructure, and community relationships, we conduct research in women’s health, children’s health, nutrition, water quality, and public health.

Health promotors

Health promoters form the backbone of our public health mission in the frontera. Each day, they travel by truck, moto, and foot into the rural Intibucá communities. Shoulder to Shoulder employs a staff of 26 promoters, who reach each of our seven municipalities every week.

Short-term volunteering

Shoulder to Shoulder brigades are vital to our history and our future. Twenty-five years ago, a small group of Cincinnati physicians traveled to a remote area of Honduras to provide medical care to a region that lacked access to even the most basic care. Although our health efforts have grown into a much more comprehensive and government-funded health system, visiting brigades continue to provide huge value to the organization and the communities we serve by supplementing and enhancing the services we provide.

We tailor each brigade to the skills of its members and the needs of the communities. Brigades range in size from 12 to 35, and generally stay between one and two weeks. We welcome brigades in many areas including:

Health (primary care, dentistry, pharmacy, and specialty health services)
Health education (sexual and reproductive health, infectious disease prevention, prenatal care, etc.)

Organizational Base: Dayton, Ohio

Other Programs: Dentistry, Women's Health, Research (nutrition, water quality, public health), Construction, English Teaching