Borderless Brigade recently returned from a trip to Honduras. Our team consisted of 41 people that worked in the village of Oropoli, Honduras. Oropoli is a village of about 4,000 people located in south-central Honduras about three hours outside of the capital of Tegucigalpa.
This recent trip to Oropoli was a great endeavor for Borderless Brigade and all those involved. We spent a week in Honduras and 5 days in the village of Oropoli meeting the needs of the people there. Our medical clinic consisted of four North American medical professionals and three Honduran Doctors. They were able to see 2759 patients and prescribed over 16,500 prescriptions which were filled by our Pharmacy team. At an average cost of about 70 cents per prescription this seven member team distributed over $11,550 worth of medicines. During this same time our dental team, which consisted of three North American volunteers and two Honduran dentists, were able to treat 270 dental patients and extract 433 teeth.
In addition to the medical and dental needs that were met our Optical team fitted some 655 pair of eyeglasses, this was a combination of prescription and reading glasses. They also gave out almost 500 pair of sunglasses to the children of the village.
Two other brigades worked together to distribute clothing and nutritional items to everyone that came to our clinics. The clothing team distributed some 11,300 articles of clothing and 850 pairs of shoes. These items were collected and sorted over the nine months leading up to the time our cargo was shipped to Honduras through a grant Borderless received from Federal Express. On average each person received 4 to 5 articles of clothing along with a drawstring backpack. And thanks to the generous donation facilitated by Tim Walker with Horizon Ag, and rice donated by Mike Wagner owner of Two Brooks Farms in Sumner, Mississippi, our nutritional team distributed 3000 bags of enriched white rice. They were able to give a 1 kilo bag of rice to each person that came to our clinics. For example, this means a mother that came with her 4 children to our clinic was able to receive five kilos of rice for her family. In addition to the rice our team purchased 800 kilos of dried black beans for distribution.
We also had a Veterinary brigade that vaccinated 487 cows and 33 horses belonging to the families leaving in the surrounding areas of Oropoli.
Borderless Brigade is a humanitarian organization founded by a group of Christian business and community leaders with a desire to share our faith by meeting the needs of individuals living in impoverished communities such as Oropoli. Because of this we choose to partner with faith based groups and churches to minister to spiritual needs as well as the physical needs of the people we encounter. In Oropoli our group shared the Gospel throughout the week and worked with the children in the village by sharing songs and Bible stories. Because of these efforts some 80 people professed their faith in Christ.