There are big concerns still on the healthcare issues in Honduras, especially in rural Honduras. Better oral hygiene is needed because most do not brush their teeth. Many children already have their teeth rotting out. Education is needed and the continued efforts of dispensing toothbrushes and toothpaste which is being done very successfully currently on a small scale. This is a great achievement and more must be done. It will require additional funding and resources. It is imperative.
Continued support and funding for contraception is another smart move. The government needs a set of educational programs to be made available to be taught in the schools and through the church. By providing birth control methods-pills, intra-uterine devices, condoms, etc this will help in two ways. One it will slow the birth rate and population increase right now at 2.4% and it will slow the spread of HIV/AIDS as well. This of course meets with a little bit of conflict from a religious perspective although these issues must be addressed and the dialogue must continue.
Now that the volunteer groups are making progress on the rural poor healthcare issues, the efforts need to be maintained at the village level, slowing the birth rate will help in many ways and it will reduce poverty too. Some mothers just cannot feed their many children and this prevents the children from growing up healthy and nourished. Thus, the continued cycle of poverty is on-going. Such realities need to be addressed say many of the volunteers who come back after assisting in rural Honduras.