The El Pital Health Center was created after Hurricane Mitch, when Un Mundo was asked to administer emergency relief funds. The following report by Un Mundo Executive Director Ken Hutz tells how and why the Health Center came into existence, and how it functions.

When I arrived in El Pital and spoke privately to some of the village elders, explaining this relief money, they without exception suggested a health center for the community. It is also generally agreed upon in El Pital that during the hurricane the hand of God intervened, and spared all human life. After the hurricane, however, disease took its toll and continues to do so. Lots of sick people in hammocks and corpses were carried down the Cangrejal River valley in those days. For years the residents have wanted a health center, but lacked the resources. When ill they have had to pay one-third of their daily wage on transport and travel to a La Ceiba neighborhood some 20 km away.

To realize a health center, three conditions needed to be met. The first condition to be met in the acquisition process was my approval of the program provided by the Honduran National Health Department. I sat in the modest office of the state-wide director as she explained the program. They provide free service, a live-in nurse, medicines, an apprentice nursing position, a bona fide M.D. visit every three weeks, as well as a lot of auxiliary benefits such as a stopping point for medical brigades (such as Doctors Without Borders), seminars for the community on natural medicines and hygiene, access to federal funds for the installation of lavatories and potable water for all inhabitants within the health center's jurisdiction. She also discussed candidly the need for a night watchman and the problems of neglected maintenance and theft plaguing some centers. I concluded the program is extremely well run and the possibility of failure remote.

The next two conditions to be met were imposed by the Health Department itself. The first was to meet and discuss the proposed health center with representatives of all villages in the lower Cuenca falling under the jurisdiction of the health center. This took all of ten minutes. I explained the fund, proposed a health center, and they were thrilled. The only condition left to be met was the creation of a local committee to outfit and maintain the center.

Invitations to attend a meeting about the creation of a health center went out to all residents of the lower Cuenca. We met in the school of El Pital at noon Sunday. A friend ran the meeting. At this meeting I spoke on your behalf. I explained the origins of the money, saying it comes from everyday people who, for accident of birth in most cases, live in a wealthy country, and wanted to help ease the suffering caused by Mitch. I also explained my role as middleman and my responsibility to ensure the money is well spent. Quizzical looks gave way to broad grins. We in the States seldom stop to consider a country like Honduras, while the Estados Unidos is a felt presence in their daily lives. They understood your donations as an unconditional gift, a voluntary redistribution of wealth, and felt part of a ceremonial sharing. Aside from a government program offering donated canned goods and clothes in exchange for labor, yours was the only foreign aid to reach El Pital after Hurricane Mitch leveled almost every house in the village.

The facility purchased is a recently completed block house in the center of the village. It was built by a guy in a neighboring village who later decided he liked his own village better. It is the finest house in El Pital. It has a sitting room and three bedrooms, and is perfect for a health center. Two weeks after the committee was elected three nurses came up to inoculate babies and vaccinate dogs. They said they had never seen such a high turnout.