The outcomes of this project will serve the people of Aguan Valley in Honduras by decreasing the child mortality rate and the mortality rate of women as a result childbirth. Updating the 23-year old structure of the Hogar Materno, bathrooms, kitchen, appliances, and furnishings will enable this valuable resource to continue to provide a sanitary dry place for women who must travel many miles from the rural countryside to a hospital in Tocoa to give birth. The Hogar Materno is a home that provides services to pregnant women just before and after childbirth. The Hogar has served over 41,000 women since it opened in 1998. In addition to providing a clean and dry place for the women to stay, the women also receive education in the importance of sanitation and hygiene – knowledge that they can take with them and teach their families and communities when they return home. Tocoa Rotary Club funded the startup of the Hogar Materno in 1996 as part of a country-wide effort to implement maternity homes to improve conditions for childbirth and reduce maternal and child mortality rates. The women who live and work in the fields of the Aguan Valley walk, or ride a mule, or ride in a cart, many miles to the hospital in Tocoa to give birth. The Hogar Materno, which is located next to the General Hospital, provides a sanitary place for these women to stay so that they may travel toward the end of their pregnancy, rather than while they are in labor. They can also stay at the Hogar after delivery if necessary to recover, or if their newborn is admitted to the neonatal unit for additional care. The women generally stay a few days before, and a few days after they give birth. While at the Hogar, the women receive prenatal and postnatal care from professionals at the hospital. They also receive education on sanitation and hygiene for themselves, their newborns, and their families. In Honduras, as is the case in most countries, high rates of maternal and child mortality result from inequities in access to health services. The poor and illiterate live mostly in rural areas where the women do not have access to basic obstetric care. As a result of maternity homes like the Hogar Materno, the child mortality rate has decreased from 44.3 per 1000 live births in 1996 to 16.8 in 2019. The mortality rate of women as a result of childbirth has also decreased from 85 per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 65 in 2017. With the help of volunteer nurses from the hospital, Hogar Materno is now providing education aimed to promote adolescents’ reproductive health and support childbearing preferences in an effort to reduce the adolescent birth rate which has hovered at 137 out of 1000 births to 15-19 year olds for the past 20 years. Along with our fellow rotarians at the Concord, Martinez, and Diablo View Clubs, the Pleasant Hill Rotary Club is partnering with Club Rotario Tocoa to update the Hogar Materno and ensure its sustainability to continue to provide health and sanitary support for the women of the Aguan Valley of Honduras.
