September 2012 Status Update
Prepared by Sheridan Reiger
Upcoming Events for the Month
September 15: Honduras BOD Meeting (let Sheridan know if you want to join in on Skype)
Early October: Quarterly US BOD Meeting (TBD by doodle calendar sent out by MKO) - Sheridan would welcome anyone that wants to meet face to face for the meeting to come to he and Sarah's condo on Capitol Hill on 16th and Republican.
Cuban Doctor from Punta Ocote (L) with Ramon (BOD member from Punta Ocote)
Corina (treasurer of Honduran BOD)
(from L to R) Doctor from LG, Yanira (CHW from PO), Angela, and Cristina (head CHW)
Programming Updates
- Sheridan's recent trip to Honduras: after spending time in Nicaragua, Sheridan took the bus with Cristina up to El Progreso to spend 4 days having meetings in the Hotel Monte Cristo. He met with the doctors from both Punta Ocote and La Guacamaya, all members if the Honduran BOD, the promotoras, and Angela. Overall a very successful trip. Details on specific programming are below and pictures are above.
- Collaboration in Nicaragua: update here - http://saludjuntos.org/?p=447
- Diabetes group in Punta Ocote: The first meeting to explain the group to previous identified diabetes patients will take place on September 29! Baseline survey collection is already underway! Medications will begin being provided by the end of October.
- HTN group expansion in Punta Ocote: Cristina and Yanira will begin getting people with high BP that live outside of Punta Ocote enrolled in the PO group. Additionally, they will begin holding HTN group meetings in which no medications are provided in the neighboring clinic of La Trinidad, as there are over 40 HTN patients there who want care but do not want to pay to care.
- HTN group in LG: The new doctor in La Guacamaya is very fond of the idea of re-starting the group in LG. Ben and Sheridan need to follow up with Cristina and the doc on this.
- Personaria Judirica: The lawyer says that she will complete the process within 2 months, and if now will at least give us a partial refund. The Honduran BOD is anxious for this to happen so that they can start getting more in-kind donations within Honduras.
- Vision Project (according to Marion): The vision manual is being edited so that a lay-health worker can use it as a guide to dispense over the counter eye glasses, sun glasses, and artificial tears to the patients who needs it. Marion and Dan Twelker are in the process of making it less theoretical and more practical. The use of Skype for additional small training sessions is also being explored. "The idea is we drop anything that's more than hyperopia, dry eyes in terms of practice; but we give her information on how to recognize eye diseases that require referrals, as well as how to recognize hyperopia, miopia, astigmastism, and presbyopia and how to handle each case...[Dan would] be willing to go down to HN when it's not longer dangerous...he's still very much committed to this project."
In the US Updates
- Seattle Fundraiser: Coming up. Invites (both paper and electronic) have been sent out. We have roughly 25 RSVPs already and donations are already coming in! Over $350 already! Keep inviting people and RSVP to Sheridan if you plan on coming!
- Linsey Battan: A friend of a friend, Linsey has worked in the development department at Fred Hutchinson and is helping us develop fundraising resources and a holistic strategy. If anyone wants to talk to her and tell her thank you then please send her an email: labattan@gmail.com
- Donation of toothbrushes/paste: Katrina has worked with Colgate to get an in kind donation. More on this later.
- Website: Our new website will go live before the fundraiser!
- New board members: Recently had a talk with Tom Garland about getting another board member or two. He is willing to lead a discussion on this at the coming board meeting. It's an agenda item...boom!
- Sheridan wants 20% raise in salary: just wanted to make sure you were still reading, and reading closely!
Financial Picture (Still looking for Dollar Bush)
- No update on how much we have left in our account (s). This represents that we need to finally complete the transition from Bank of America to Welles Fargo. Let's do it!
- Marina is doing a great job as book keeper here in the US. We are working on doing better at keeping track of in kind donations of time and goods. More on how this shakes out later.
- Corina in Honduras is doing a great job taking care of book keeping in Honduras. We recently consolidated all bank accounts in Honduras to one which Corina controls and Ben Ranz can monitor online. A new volunteer, James Cartales, recently developed some new Excel financial reporting tools for our Honduran money movement. Ben and Sheridan will work on implementing these with Corina.