Recipient: Secretaria Nacional de
la Familia / FUDEM
Shipment Date: 1/15/2003
Value: $252,717
El Salvador is Central America's smallest
and most densely populated country. Seventy percent of the population lives
in rural areas where health conditions are extremely poor. Economic problems
have been exacerbated recently with a significant drop in the price of
coffee and other agricultural commodities. The Visual Health Center of
El Salvador operates three rural clinics and a mobile medical unit in its
mission to provide the medically underserved population with basic health
education, vision exams, eyeglass fittings, and glaucoma testing. Sophisticated
eye surgeries are performed in their main clinic in the capital city of
San Salvador.
Direct Relief donated sterilizers, an operating room table and light, patient examination equipment, gurneys, and other visual and primary care supplies and medications which allowed the Visual Health Center to expand its outreach capabilities and to open an additional surgical suite at their main clinic