Medical Missions

On a mission to deliver healthcare and teach good health practices

Our volunteer team of physicians, surgeons, specialists, nurses, and pharmacy personnel offer free medical care and attention to the poorest of the poor. In 2016, we commenced our efforts in the Port au Prince area of Haiti supporting medical mission teams in two clinics and one hospital, however, the crisis situation in Haiti escalated making it is no longer safe to visit and forcing many hospitals and clinics to close including ours. Hence, our medical mission teams have now pivoted our efforts to Honduras.

Contaminated water sources, a lack of sanitation, and persistent malnutrition combine to create an environment in which the poor in Honduras suffer. These harsh living conditions leave the door open for sickness and disease. On top of their daily struggle to survive, the Honduran poor do not have access to medical care in their lifetime and are unable to afford doctor visits, surgeries or life saving medicines. We strive to fill that unmet need one visit at a time and one surgical procedure at a time to save lives and help people who would otherwise die from their illness.

In an effort to fill the gap in these communities that have no formal healthcare system or healthcare infrastructure, The C14 Foundation supports Blue Sky Surgical Team. Blue Sky Surgical Team is composed of volunteer adult and pediatric surgeons and nurses who collaborate with specialists, pharmacists, dentists, and optometrists from the US who work at the Manos Amigos Clinic which is located in Estrada in the northwest corner of Honduras. The resulting collaboration with the Blue Sky healthcare providers is sending surgical and specialty care teams to the clinic in Estrada twice per year, including approximately 70 US volunteers who conduct between 100-120 on-site surgeries each visit. These surgeries are performed free of charge.

Blue Sky Medical Mission Team at Manos Amigos Clinic in Estrada, Honduras, November 2023

Additionally, we support the St. Norbert Medical Mission team is composed of 12-14 US volunteer primary care doctors who treat more than 1,000 patients every week at no cost to patients. This team works from the One World Surgery Clinic located in Talanga, which is located in the mountains approximately one-hour north of Tegucigalpa, the capital.

St Norbert Medical Mission Team at One World Surgery in Talanga, Honduras, January 2024

Donations drive our medical mission team.

Medical Missions to Haiti costs on average $15,000-$35,000 each trip. Our volunteers pay their own travel costs, and the team stays very close to the clinic it serves. The team must face some of the same hardships as those it works to help, including a hot, harsh, dusty, and polluted environment. They persevere to deliver the same standard of care a patient would receive had she or he sought medical attention in the United States.

Challenges wait around every corner.

Some people struggle with joy, others surrender to hopelessness. The many faces we see every day in the clinic are a gut-wrenching reminder of how complex the reality of life is for the poorest of the poor. These harsh realities often fall on the shoulders of women. Every day, mothers have to struggle to keep their children alive. Hard work and hunger make them prone to diseases such as tuberculosis.

Honduras remains hostage to poverty and insecurity. At least 58% of the people, especially in the major cities, are living in congested areas without running water or proper sewerage. The streets become the living rooms for the many poor Hondurans.

One of the greatest challenges our clinic faces is procuring adequate medical supplies. At any one time, the volunteer team procures enough medicine to see and treat approximately 800 patients, but this is not enough. Donations increase our buying power so we can serve more people – people who would have absolutely no medical care and would likely die if it were not for our missions.

Honduras will only change if we can offer every Honduran family the possibility to change their own lives, a possibility they can only find in their own country. We need your help to save the poorest of the poor, who have done nothing but be born to unfortunate circumstances.