PazSalud Work

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PeaceHealth and the CJSP are committed to utilizing the gifts of our health care system to improve the lives of Salvadorans who live in poverty.  The life-altering realities of COVID-19 have inspired PazSalud to reimagine its founding model and strategize alternative ways to continue serving Salvadorans in need.  Staying true to the original mission, PazSalud will continue to be a force for delivering health care but we will now focus our efforts primarily on conducting domestic medical missions comprised of Salvadoran providers utilizing medicines and supplies purchased in country.  This enables us to tap into the wealth of local providers so willing to serve their country by providing medical care to the country’s many underserved patients while building local capacity to create a sustainable program that can endure generations.

But beyond its mission and design, PazSalud recognized early on that long-term solutions, coupled with short-term help, are key to any developing country’s progress and sustainability.  To that end, PazSalud attempts to address the long-term needs of the communities it serves in the following ways:

Water filters. Clean, safe drinking water is a basic building block to health that nearly every Salvadoran lacks.  During its General Medical Mission, PazSalud providers treat and refer families with a history of parasites for a Sawyer water filter.  Each year, PazSalud provides 100 water filters and in collaboration with Centro de Intercambio and Solidaridad (CIS), each family ‘prescribed’ a filter will receive three pre-educational meetings and a follow up home visit to ensure they are being used correctly.  The water filters provide 10 years of potable water and enhanced health for the entire family, reducing diarrhea and other parasitic health conditions.

Medical Scholarships.  Higher education remains largely inaccessible to the poor, rural Salvadorans with whom PazSalud works.  To address this need, PazSalud provides scholarships to deserving students within the communities where we conduct missions.  Working through CIS to administer the scholarships, PazSalud selects and funds scholarships to students in the medical field: MD, nursing, physical therapy, etc.  A university scholarship has the potential to benefit not only the student, but the entire family and the community for years to come.

Relationships.  PazSalud’s Country Coordinator lives and works in San Salvador and is available to assist community health clinic providers, hospital leaders, patients and their families for follow-up and other health-related needs.  The relationships built during the medical and surgical missions and maintained years after are an integral component to PazSalud’s success, and an ideal expression of PeaceHealth’s and the CSJP’s mission and their commitment to the communities in which we work.