16,800 bags of Chispuditos Travel Over Dirt Roads

By Laura Manship – General Director

Delivery truck trying to enter Clinic site

Delivery truck trying to enter Clinic site

Ana Gisela, the Coordinator of Shoulder to Shoulder’s Micronutrient Program (MANI), waited anxiously for a week.  Everyday, she waited for the phone call that would tell her that the Chispuditos were on their way.  Why so much anxiety?  Well, when you have 16,800 bags of micronutrients traveling by truck from Guatemala to remote Honduras, over dirt roads, you tend to worry about whether they’ll arrive or not.  But, finally, they did arrive!  Then, there was the challenge to get the huge truck through the gate at the clinic.  Challenge was overcome, and the bags were finally at the clinic site.Next, there is the challenge to distribute the Chispuditos.  These 16,800 bags will be enough for 2 distributions — in  April and July.  All through the month of April, 18 Community Health Workers will be distributing 1/2 of the truck load (that is, 8,400 bags) to the 2,800 children in the program.

It takes lots of organizational skills to ensure that all these bags get into the homes of 2,800 needy children.  But, Gisela and her team are up to the task!

16,800 bags of Chispuditos

16,800 bags of Chispuditos

Gisela carrying sacks of Chispuditos

Gisela carrying sacks of Chispuditos

The "Marriage" between Brown, VCU, and Wingate Universities

Whoever said “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, had never met the travelers from Brown, VCU, and Wingate Universities.  Two weeks ago, Shoulder to Shoulder did something that we had never done before – we merged travelers from THREE universities in order to create ONE brigade group.

The Supervising MDs from VCU (Tommy Ball and Lauren Gorden) and their 2 Residents (Daniel Mendez and Sumni Yang) needed more travelers.
A Resident, Psychiatrist, and volunteer from Brown (Angelina Palombo, Horacio Hojman, and David Weign) needed a group to join.
A Pharmacist and pharmacy students from Wingate (Lisa Brennan, Kalyn Meosky, and Kelly Mansfield) needed to fill prescriptions for providers.

The group of 10 agreed to spend 3 days at Brown’s clinic site (Guachipilincito) and 3 days at VCU’s clinic site (Pinares).
What was the outcome?  A wonderful merging of personalities, abilities, and styles and the provision of medical, psychiatric, educational and pharmaceutical services to hundreds of patients!!

The communities of Guachipilincito, Concepcion, and Pinares all benefited by these 10 strangers coming together to provide services.  They saw patients in clinics, in elementary and high schools, and during home visits.  In Guachi, they attended 165 people; in Pinares, they attended 160 people.  The smiles on the travelers’ faces are proof that the strangers became friends.  How beautiful is that!