The Griffon News

Help is coming to Honduras – the third poorest country in Central America - and you can be a part of it.

Starting April 9 through the week of finals, Western’s nursing department will be placing boxes by the main entrances to all major buildings on campus. Their goal is to collect 4,000 toothbrushes, bars of soap and multivitamins for the underprivileged citizens of Honduras.

The nursing department, with two faculty members and 11 students, are participating in this humanitarian effort. The department would like to bring in physicians and nurses from the St. Joseph community to aid them in their work.

This July, assistant professor of nursing Julie Baldwin and nursing students Shila Sperry,  Shelly Hacker, Carey Beckwith, Ronda Williams and Lorie Stephens will be some of the individuals completing this public health training.

“The main goal when we go down there is to teach them how to brush their teeth and how to take care of themselves,” Sperry said. “We are also planning to make first aid kits to give  to the village leaders. We are giving them multivitamins because malnutrition is an issue. We are going to make posters like “boil your water before you drink it” because their water is very contaminated. And we want to teach them about hand washing, thus the soap.”

Dental hygiene is a major concern because sugarcane is one of their most popular agricultural products, and yet many people do not have access to toothbrushes or toothpaste.

“Sugarcane is a problem for them starting at a young age because the children will take the stubs from the sugar cane fields and chew on them,” Hacker said.

The students are collecting toothbrushes, but not toothpaste, because the average citizen of Honduras will not be able to buy more.

“We thought about asking for toothpaste but once they go through their little bottle that
will be it,” Beckwith said. “But the toothbrush will last for while.”

The department hopes the citizens of Honduras appreciate their visit, particularly in the
area of childcare. The people of the country have been known to travel long distances and are willing to spend hours in line to get an examination. The local school may be closed for a day in order for the medical and dental screenings to take place. They could see up to 500 individuals a day.

“We plan to give the multivitamins to the schools so they can give them to the students daily,” Williams said.

Due to a poor water source, they have very little clean, clear water to drink or bathe in. This adds a very serious health challenge.

“We are going to be teaching some about rehydration because many of the adults and kids die from dehydration,” Stephens said.

The nursing department hopes the implementation of this new three-credit program will be an asset for many people in the future.

“This is the first time the nursing department has done a study away program, and we hope to continue it,” Baldwin said.