Honduras 2018
In 2018 OpWalk Carolinas traveled to San Pedro Sula, Honduras with a mission: to help restore the basic function of walking to those who cannot. Many Honduran people don’t have the same health care access that those in the United States are privileged to enjoy. For these Hondurans, arthritis can mean life in a wheelchair, if they can afford it, or in a bed. In many cases, the inability to walk and work means families lose their income. Honduras is the second poorest country in Central America with an average salary of about $2 a day. 60% of its people live in poverty with 42% in extreme poverty.
While in Honduras the team performed joint 58 joint replacements on 47 patients. These much-needed surgeries allowed patients to have a richer quality of life. They enabled fathers and mothers to go back to work or to be able to walk down the road, and made grandparents able to stand up and hold their grandchildren. With local medical workers and providers working alongside the team, they left training and tools in the hands of their counterparts to empower them to care for their own.