WHERE WE WORK:

Rus Rus Hospital

Located only 5 miles from the Nicaragua border, but nearly 60 miles from the nearest Honduran "municipality," the Rus Rus hospital was once a key medical outpost serving refugee camps that flooded the region during the Contra war in Nicaragua in the 1980's.

By the early 1990's the refugee population had subsided (along with international funding) and the hospital was effectively closed. The local population, however has continued to grow as has the need for basic and emergency medical care for an estimated 25,000 Miskito Indians living in the Coco River "corridor" along the Honduran/Nicaraguan border.

In 2010, in response to increasing need, the hospital was reopened by Missionary Air Group. An aircraft hangar was constructed and staff housing was rebuilt by volunteer teams with the help of the local community. And in June 2010, a dedicated aircraft and full-time missionary pilot/mechanic was based in Rus Rus officially marking the re-opening of this mission base. (see "Featured Story" June 2010)

Resuming medical services has had an immediate and tangible impact on the surrounding area. Patients arrive daily – some walking for days through the jungle because they "heard" that the hospital is open once again. The dedicated aircraft at Rus Rus serves as the only means of emergency medical response in the area It is also a critical logistics and transportation bridge for medical supplies and staff as well as the needed flow of mission teams.

Facility rehab and infrastructure development is currently underway in order to allow a full range of general medical, surgical, diagnostic, inpatient, and community health services to be available to the region by 2012.

The current operating room at Rus Rus hospital