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The Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children is pleased to announce volunteer opportunities at our clinic site in El Salvador!

We are currently recruiting individuals and groups to travel on short-term medical mission trips of one week or more.

Volunteers will typically spend half their time at the clinic site, working with the doctor and staff to see patients. The other half of volunteers’ time will be spent planning and presenting health education lessons and seminars, as well as performing house calls throughout the community. Volunteers also have the unique opportunity to aid FIMRC in collecting basic health statistics and surveying families in the community to develop assessments of healthcare needs.

Our clinic serves the Las Delicias, a small, rural community located outside El Salvador’s capital of San Salvador. Most families here live in houses made of wood panels or aluminum and have limited or no access to reliable, potable water. Unemployment and underemployment plague the community, as many of the area’s coffee and subsistence farmers have gone out of business in recent years. Most medical facilities are unaffordable to the families of Las Delicias. Before FIMRC opened its clinic, the nearest accessible medical care was too far away to reach without walking for almost a day.

The principal causes of child death are gastroenteritis, influenza, malaria, measles, pneumonia, and bronchitis, caused or complicated by malnutrition, bad sanitation, and poor housing. Children are particularly vulnerable to health related issues caused by poverty including diarrhea, head lice, malnutrition, and bronchial infections.

Our volunteer program is open to volunteers of all ages and educational or professional backgrounds. We have hosted everyone from college students taking an alternative spring break to medical specialists with decades of experience.

The costs for a one-week trip are as follows:

Program donation: $599 per week
Housing: $49 per day (includes daily breakfast);
In-country transportation: $159 per week;

Volunteers are responsible for purchasing their own airfare.

Project Las Delicias is ideal for individuals as well as groups seeking to do a volunteer mission together! If you are ready to find out more about FIMRC’s project in El Salvador, or about our programs in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Peru, India, or Uganda, please visit http://fimrc.org/missions-new/volunteer-information-request-form. If you would like to speak to one of our team members, please contact VP of Volunteer Programs Sara Schoenleber at missions@fimrc.org or 1.888.211.8575. We look forward to hearing from you!