2026 Honduras Brigade Report: Expanding Care and Strengthening Community Health
We’re grateful to God for another wonderful medical mission trip, and thankful for all the people whose dedication and support made it possible!
Seeing patients at patient care table
In July, 46 American volunteers and 30 Honduran partners came together to provide medical and dental care across 20 rural villages in Honduras over five days. Together, the team served 2,211 medical patients and 323 dental patients. Although our medicine shipment was delayed because of shipping miscommunications, our dedicated advance team, with help from Honduran partners who assist in-country each year, packed and organized all the supplies before the main team arrived. We were also blessed to have 15 of our high school scholarship students for a day of packing bulk medications, sharing their stories, and enjoying pizza with the team.
2026 HGW Brigade Team
During the advance team's work, Dr. Francis. provided additional training for the Guardianes de Salud Program, which equips local lay health workers to take blood pressure readings and test blood sugar levels. This year's emphasis was on recording results consistently and on developing a process to semi-automatically transfer data from paper forms into a digital database for future reference. Supporting this effort, a volunteer developed a computer program to process both Guardiane data and daily clinic visit data, along with an intake/medication order sheet for our daily clinics designed to be processed automatically with greater ease
Although records are still being processed, we expect this system to become increasingly valuable in supporting long-term patient care. It will help providers understand how well patients’ conditions are controlled from year to year and make better-informed decisions when prescribing medications. And we will have much better data on what diseases are being diagnosed, and what meds are most prescribed.
Another important development this year was the addition of a dental chair with pneumatic tools, provided by HNI Charities. A true game changer! Dentists could provide fillings and repairs rather than relying primarily on extractions. Truly a remarkable gift for villagers in remote communities who have no access to such treatment. Because the equipment was so successful, we hope to provide one unit for each team next year.
Portable dental chair: fewer extractions, more treatment choices
We are also grateful for the leadership of high school student Elena Murguia, who worked with our scholarship team over the past year to research what one rural village, Lainez, needed to strengthen students’ opportunities for academic success. She raised funds to provide refurbished laptops, tables, chairs, school supplies, StarLink and other resources for a Study Hall that was established during the brigade. Elena also developed an Ambassador Program so students in Honduras can connect with like-minded students in the United States for ongoing encouragement and support.
New Study Hall program
None of these efforts would be possible without the generosity and commitment of our donors at home, and from HNI Charities. Thank you for continuing to support this mission and for helping bring compassionate, practical care to communities in Honduras year after year.
