The excerpt below is from a report provided to BBF Global Relief by longstanding partner Food for the Poor (FFTP) regarding a BBF pharma container donation that went to Honduras. It shows the impact that the pharma donation program is making on the lives of underserved community members.

Honduras is one of the most impoverished countries in Latin America with one of the highest levels of income inequality in the region. According to the CIA World Factbook, more than 48 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Although violence is on the decline, Honduras still has one of the world’s highest murder rates.

Unemployment, gang violence and a widespread lack of opportunity contribute to the challenging landscape. Chronic malnutrition is rampant in Honduras. Infant and child mortality rates are also high.

Honduras remains one of the most vulnerable countries to natural disasters in the world, frequently being affected by severe droughts that deplete the availability of basic crops. COVID-19 and severe storm-related setbacks in 2020 and 2021 crippled the country’s economic activity. As a result, the most vulnerable populations in Honduras continue to suffer from hunger and food insecurity.

In remote, impoverished areas of Honduras, access to health care is mostly nonexistent. It is with donations such as the one BBF recently sent to FFTP that our in-country partners are able to coordinate and arrange medical brigades to reach people most in need.  These brigades go into rural areas and provide much needed medical services to populations who would otherwise not have access to critical healthcare.

“Thanks to the continued support and generous donations of medicine, there are two medical brigades that are carried out each month to reach the most vulnerable communities in our country,” explains Heydy Bu, Food For The Poor’s in-country partner representative. “We are most grateful for the contribution that we are able to make thanks to these donations.”

In this shipment, Brother’s Brother Foundation donated thousands of bottles of medicine for the treatment of hypertension, diabetes, kidney dysfunction and even Parkinson’s disease and malaria.  This medicine allows impoverished children and families in Honduras to treat their acute and chronic medical conditions and would otherwise be unavailable without this donation.

This container shipment from Pittsburgh also included personal protective equipment such as N95 respirator face masks, exam gloves, disposable lab coats and procedure face masks.

Since January 1, 2024, BBF has sent eight pharma shipments in the form of 40’ ocean-going containers. All of us at BBF are pleased to continue this partnership with Food for the Poor and in-country partner CEPUDO!  It is through relationships like these that BBF is able to work in so many places and provide access to much needed medicine, supplies, and healthcare services.