We completed another rewarding mission to Honduras on January 7-15, 2012! 

About Us

The mission to Honduras started with a few people and has expanded to many people from many different denominations and churches working together to improve the lives of people in Southwest Honduras...
More



KHISH On Facebook


Articles

Report: 2011 Mission Trip

Report: 2010 Mission Trip

Honduras Mission: A Year In Review

Dental Symposium


Honduras Map









The Medical and Dental clinics were very successful, and many patients were treated.  The Construction crew made improvements to the Hospital facilities in San Lorenzo.  The Water project made enormous strides in its effort to bring clean water to the villages of Puerta Grande and Moropocay.  Project Vision provided cataract surgeries for 97 patients!

 

Water Project

We are working on a project to improve the water facilities at Moropocay and Puerto Grande, the two remote villages to which our medical, dental and construction teams have been travelling each year.   The medical team repeatedly treats water borne illnesses that would not have occurred or spread if clean water were available for drinking.   We are now very close to a solution in each village.

Read about the Water Project

 

 

 

KHISH TRIP TO HONDURAS JANUARY 2012 

The next mission trip is Jan 7-14, 2012.  Our Project Vision group will also be in Honduras on Jan 2-7.  Please join us if you can, or help us prepare to collect supplies for the medical and dental clinics and for other projects we will be undertaking.  See the NEXT TRIP page for details. 


 

 

 

 KHISH TRIP TO HONDURAS JANUARY 2-15, 2011

Friends:

We have completed another rewarding mission to Honduras.  Enjoy the pictures. See the list of participants at the end of this report.  We appreciate your support. Here is what we accomplished this past year in Honduras and what we hope to do in 2011.

PREPARATION FOR THE TRIP

As usual, we spent a lot of time during 2010 preparing for the trip, fundraising, gathering supplies and making plans for how we can best conduct medical and dental clinics and do construction projects in Honduras.

We continued to work closely with Mission Relief Services, (Jim Harrison)  to improve the lives of the people in Honduras. We continue to work with Engineers Without Borders (E.W.B.). This is a university/professor/student organization which is active in the U.S. and in many foreign countries. We have established a good relationship with SEE International which is a group of Ophthalmologists who perform cataract surgery in developing countries.

Grace Covenant Presbyterian, Trinity Presbyterian and The First Presbyterian Church of Port Jefferson each sponsored one of the three medical and dental clinics which were conducted at Puerto Grande and Morocopy during 2010. Grace Immanuel Episcopal Church Foundation strongly supports our program which is very welcome.

The KHISH team of 18 gringos included four doctors, a dentist and two pastors. We hammered out a budget of almost $30,000 not including airfare which was paid by each participant. The budget included money for supplies for construction, for a dental symposium and for medical and dental clinics. Our budget was accurate and we followed it. More importantly we met the financial criteria of spending every nickel of donated money on worthwhile projects in Honduras, nothing on administration.

We were joined by Hondurans including a doctor, four administrators, three drivers a security person and two different members of the National Police each day. Rev. Mark Wright, the Presbyterian missionary to Honduras, worked extremely hard all week as one of the translators for the medical clinic.

The budget was funded by donations. A significant amount was provided by the Trinity Outreach Committee through the annual Golf Fling and by the Grace Covenant Outreach Committee through its fund raising efforts. At Woodcock Washburn Law Firm, June was Jean’s Day. On Fridays anyone could wear jeans to work for a $5.00 contribution to the Honduras Mission. We thank everyone at Woodcock Washburn for the contribution.John and Jenny Ward, Denny Leeper, Dave Reid, and Don Bovais of   Trinity  were among the continuing strong supporters.   Evi Maharis  collected cases for the reading glasses which we purchased.

Dr. Leonard Jensen  and   Dr. Paul Berson  contributed significantly to the effort. Their financial support enabled the presence of   Rachel Levorek   who capably assisted dentists during the trip. If I have missed anyone, I apologize... READ THE FULL TRIP REPORT

 

A Little Help From OUr Friends  
  November 29, 2011 Dr. Susan David

Back in early 2005, a call from our friend, Dick Kurtz,  was life changing.  Seems his church in Pennsylvania was poised to send a “medical mission” to Honduras and was just missing one ingredient:  medical personnel.  Trinity Presbyterian Church in Berwyn had the missional spirit, and even the funding, but had been unable to find any doctors or nurses to go along.  Little did I know when I said, “Why not?” that life would never be the same.

     The trip to Honduras was arranged through a retired stockbroker in Lancaster who had seen the tremendous need in the southern part of that third-poorest-in-the-Western-Hemisphere nation, the size of Virginia with a population that is comparable to our Commonwealth.  In five days, we were transported on life-threatening highways (there are few paved roads in the country, but one stretches from the capital city of Tegucigalpa south to the Pacific coast) and unpaved mountain roads that had been recently washed out by torrential rains.  We visited four rural hamlets and one big-city slum.  We saw poverty on a scale we never believed could exist only a two-and-a-half hour flight from Miami.  We had some memorable “snapshot” moments, but mostly the incredible experience of feeling totally culture-shocked.  And so, we did what American doctors do, and thanked our lucky stars that our usual world was not “like that.”  But we were transformed.

     The following year, when the same opportunity presented itself, we signed on again, believing (hope against hope?) that we could feel more competent this time.  Same group organizer, five more different clinics in five more cinderblock one-room Presbyterian churches in the stretch south from Teguc toward San Lorenzo.   Then one of our translators made a casual comment at dinner.  She said she didn’t believe short-term mission groups (and she had worked with many) accomplished anything.  Our reaction was to become defensive.  Surely we were doing some good.  She agreed that we might feel good about ourselves for being there, and that we would certainly get affirmation from friends at home as we regaled them with tales of deprivation and hopelessness, but that the people of Honduras wouldn’t even remember us once their twenty tablets of Tylenol were gone.  For the record, they lined up in the hot sun for three hours and went through the motions of a cursory physical exam, to be given twenty Tylenol, then walked home a couple of hours.  What had we accomplished?  Another joyless handout, remembered perhaps with more resentment than gratitude.  We were challenged.

     We planned the 2007 mission trip ourselves.  It didn’t look that difficult.  We made one crucial change, after discussing our shared experiences:  we decided to choose two communities and to concentrate our efforts on them.  For the past five years, we have visited Moropocay and Puerto Grande, and tried to learn how God wants to use us as we come to know a few thousand people, seeing the same faces, hearing the same names, again and again.  We also are learning the joy of being able to say that we are working WITH good friends in rural Honduras.  Dr. Adolfo Moreno is a family physician whose “day job” is running a clinic for the very poor in Tegucigalpa, funded by the Presbytery of Tampa Bay.  He has accompanied us, without fail, on every clinic day for the past seven years.  He probably understands more English than he could ever say (and he never tries to speak English), but manages to give us a tutorial in tropical medicine every time.  He faithfully keeps our (now) thousands of medical records, and adds to them when he holds quarterly clinics in these same two villages, funded by the Presbyterian church in Berwyn, in Port Jefferson, and on Monument Avenue. His family has been growing up before our eyes.  We met his daughter Stephanie when she was fifteen, son Jorge when he was thirteen, Alejandra as a gawky ten year old, “Rosanita” before she was born.  Now Stephanie is a university student studying architecture, Jorge studying biomechanical engineering, Alejandra a very savvy high-school future businesswoman, Rosanita an engaging kindergartener.  Beatriz is the owner of a roadside restaurant who never ceases to amaze us with the quality of her cooking, enjoyed with conversations occasionally interrupted by a semi flying by on the highway only feet from where we are seated beneath slowly-turning ceiling fans in the open air. Immanuel Episcopal Church in Old Church has sent their Rector and half a dozen members (including my husband), along with generous funding and oodles of baby blankets.  Our colleague from Centro Cristiano de Servicios Humanitario de Honduras, Melvin Tejada, is a Mennonite.   Richard (AKA the Rev. Dr. Richard Graugh) is our “spiritual advisor” from the First Presbyterian Church of Port Jefferson, NY.  Ken, one of his parishioners, is a soft-spoken man in his late sixties who was one of the very first crop of Peace Corps volunteers in South America in the 1960s.  Len is a Professor of Dentistry from the University of Pennsylvania.  He is Jewish, as is Renee, the newborn nursery head nurse from Congregation Or Ami in Richmond.  Her congregants collect sunglasses for all the Hondurans who have cataract surgery through our Project Vision Honduras/San Lorenzo.  There are 46 people who can see now, thanks to the skills of Dr. Jim Wheatley from North Carolina and Dr. Carlos Martinez from California.  These same gifted surgeons have committed to doing 100 surgeries in January 2012, along with Dr. Angelo Murcia, the Honduran ophthalmology resident who shared his countrywoman’s misgivings about the wisdom and the usefulness of American mission groups.  He confided at the end of a week with Project Vision that HIS life had been changed.  When his residency is completed in December, he will take a position in Melvin’s eye clinic for the poor.

     What an ecumenical group!  I thank God for the wonderful support that I have been given by Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church and my fellow members who have accompanied me.  Thank you, everyone.  We look forward to coming years with NEW friends.

     If you are interested in taking part in our January mission trip, or in supporting our efforts, please see our website (www.KHISH.org) and the youtube video of Project Vision (www.youtube.com/watch?v=plH8TB31Zn0).  Susan Pillsbury David, MD (clwturtle@aol.com)

News

Pastor Posadas' House Has A Roof!


June 1, 2010
The Posadas family house in Puerto Grande has been a KHISH project since we first went to Honduras five years ago. Last January we purchased the blocks and watched as local workmen built the walls. A few weeks ago we sent Marvin Hernandes the needed funds to put the roof on the house. This has been completed as shown in the attached pictures. In January 2011 we will install wiring and paint the inside of the house. Join us in this rewarding project... More



Another Successful Mission Trip!

January 9-17, 2010
CLICK HERE TO
SEE THE 2010 TRIP PHOTOS        

 

Dental Symposium 

On Friday January 15th Drs. Len Jensen and Alex Moreno conducted a dental symposium attended by 16 visiting dentists, including a representative from the Tegucigalpa Dental School. Alex Moreno has accepted a position in the health administration of the new government in Honduras headed by newly elected President Lobo. Alex presented his vision of a program to improve the dental health of the Honduran people. Alex will be part of a new government in Honduras which is stable, fair and devoted to the people of Honduras.


Leonard Jensen presented a detailed analysis of dental implant surgery. Everyone appreciated the attention we are giving to dental health in Honduras. The Alex Moreno program for dental health is called the “GIFT OF A SMILE PROGRAM”. Dr. Leyda Callejas,  a recent medical school graduate, translated for the symposium.
  
     More ...

New Literacy Improvement Project

 

In past years we have used a Vacation Bible School program to occupy the children who attend the medical and dental clinics with their parents.

 

In 2010 this program was elevated to a new level of improving reading skills. Dr. Seonhee Cho, Boo Elmore and a guide, Stephanie Erezo played games and read stories to the children. Their responses to the stories and games helped the children immensely in their reading capability. Dr. Cho is a professor in the Education Department at Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. She designed a workbook to teach the children beginning vocabulary words. Dr. Cho now has information about the baseline literacy level of children in Morocopay  and Puerto Grande. The development of a comprehensive literacy improvement program is a key element of KHISH activities in the future.

Kurtz Humanitarian Initiative for Southwest Honduras

We are a small group dedicated to working with the people of Honduras to improve the lives of people in southwest Honduras, particularly the villages of Moropocay and Puerto Grande.  The people of Southwest Honduras are friendly, and they work hard to improve their communities.  They appreciate greatly our efforts to improve their health and living conditions.  We would like to have you join us on one of our trips to Honduras or in our efforts in the United States to collect resources for our projects .

Previous Trip Report

January 3rd - 10th, 2009

PREPARATION FOR THE TRIP

           As usual, we spent a lot of time during 2008 preparing for the trip, fundraising, gathering supplies and making plans for how we can best conduct medical and dental clinics and do construction projects inHonduras. 

            We continue to work closely with Central American Relief Effort (C.A.R.E - Steve Mentzer) and with Mission Relief Services, (Jim Harrison) to improve the lives of the people in Honduras... Read more

 

Missionary Trips

 

The next mission trip is Jan 9-15, 2011.  Please join us if you can, or help us prepare to collect supplies for the medical and dental clinics and for the construction projects we will be undertaking.    Read more

 

 

PROJECT VISION CATARACT SURGERIES COMPLETED

 

 

 

PROJECT VISION

The World Health Organization estimates that 180 million people suffer from severe visual impairment (legally blind, by U.S.standards). The leading cause of blindness throughout the world is cataracts, and 90% of this blindness is found in the  developing world.

 

Honduras is the third poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. In the Honduras Southwest reside the poorest of their poor. Seventy percent of Hondurans over 50 years of age have cataracts.  Most reside in the Southwest. There 45,000 potential cataract patients there.  We are just beginning. If you, a member of your family, or one of your friends has had cataract surgery, we don't need to impress you with the value of sight-restoring surgery.  Here in the U.S. the average cost per eye is $2038.00.  

 

We have just returned from another successful Project Vision Mission on January 2-8, 2012.  A total of 97 patients received cataract surgeries.  Please see Leona Vera's fully report at:

http://www.glacial.com/company-blog/blog/detail/2012/01/10/thank-you-for-making-project-vision-2012-possible.html

    

More ...