The staff at St. Benedict’s Clinic in Tegucigalpa, Honduras has been working long hours in response to the dengue fever epidemic. Now, with unrelenting, torrential rains and wind their situation has gone from bad to to worse. There has been damage to the clinic. The staff fears that the water that came in through the roof might cause an electrical short circuit and cause a fire. There is virtually no help from the government who says that they don’t have any money. Until they can get more money for the roof they are going to buy some sheets of plastic to cover things. This morning we received the photos above and the message below from Hernán Reyes Soto, a staff member at St. Benedict’s.

We have been hours without electric power because of a strong storm with thunder and lightening…  It was very difficult to leave the clinic. There were cave-ins at both exits and very strong currents of water.  In these last few days there has been much damage especially in Tegucigalpa.  Again, there were many houses that were destroyed, trees fallen, markets flooded, cave-ins and closing of streets, boulevards and highways…

Today I was at the clinic as it rained and I could see that the damage was even greater than I had expected. There is a lot of damage in all areas of the building. I observed that various doctors were unable to perform their duties due to the quantity of water that fell inside their offices.

The injection room has closed its doors.  Files are wet. Today pieces of ice fell like stones with great force and I believe it has created even greater damage. The employees became very frightened due to the large quantity of water that was leaking into the offices.  At the offices of odontology and microbiology it seemed as if they had a ceiling shower from the quantity of water that was leaking.  I took photos and video with the camera on my phone. But the camera on the cell phone doesn’t focus well enough.  Either way I sent the pictures and video for you to see… I do not want to cause inconveniences but when I say this matter is urgent, it’s because it is urgent, I understand what was said to me, but the problem is that it rains a lot now.  We should have made repairs in the summer but I understand that there weren’t enough resources available and that there aren’t any now.  I worry a lot about not being able to find a solution… the government will not help anyone for now… they say there is no money and now there is possibility of a general strike of all the unions, because after 8 months of trying to negotiate their minimum wage salaries they have not come into agreement…  There are other strikes by institutes of security as that of the teachers… If I give more details I can write many pages of so many conflicts that are occurring here…

Today I thought about other minor solutions, but I do not find solutions because each time that repairs are done after a short time the damage is greater…  On the other hand we cannot make repairs with so much humidity… you can only change it…

At the beginning I couldn’t understand why the electric system began to fail, but today I could see something that worries me a lot:  It is that there are filtrations of water on lamps and this can cause a short circuit and a fire… it is another reason why we stopped attending patients, since it is necessary to turn off all the lights and disconnect some machinery so that they wouldn’t get damaged… We need help as soon as possible…Please do something quickly… excuse the pressure…

Hernán Reyes Soto – St. Benedict’s Clinic

Translation by: Jocelyn Padilla

Please consider an emergency donation to assist St. Benedict’s Clinic. Please make checks payable to PASSIONIST MISSIONARIES.

Passionist Missionaries Inc.
526 Monastery Place
Union City NJ 07087-3398
Tel: 888/806-6606
E-mail: DLisotta@cpprov.org

Donate on-line by clicking the button below.

The Donate Now button will redirect you to Caring Habits, Inc. (CHI) which is the credit card processing company for The Passionist Missionaries website. You can direct your donation to St. Benedict’s by choosing Honduras – Dengue Fever Fund from the drop-down menu

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