Down's Syndrome child is examined during Medical Clinic 2008.

The picture above shows the second ribbon cutting ceremony with government officials for the opening of the medical clinic in El Guante. Left to Right: Honduran Congressman, Mayor of El Guante, Sister Val Knoche, and Honduran Minister of Health.

   David Castro, chief administrator of Clinica Asistencial La Caridad in El Guante, Honduras, visited the United States in late July 2005.  David came to Le Mars, home of Mission Honduras LeMars and Gehlen Catholic Mission Honduras, for a short 2-day visit.  While in Le Mars, David was given a personal tour of Floyd Valley Hospital and Medical Associates Clinic by Mr. Mike Donlin, administrator of Floyd Valley Hospital.  According to Richard Seivert, director of Mission Honduras LeMars, David was awed by the health facilities and technology of the hospital and clinic.  He was proud and humbled by the experience of meeting so many fine people from Le Mars.  He was truly overwhelmed by the health care available to our citizens.  He was finally pleased to meet Mike Donlin - one administrator to another.   

While in Le Mars David also met with the Le Mars Rotary Club and thanked them for their generous donations throughout the past years, resulting in numerous water projects in rural Honduran villages.  Seivert also commented that David serves as the go-between for Mission Honduras LeMars on most of our projects in Honduras.  David also thanked the managers of HyVee Stores Incorporated for the contributions of medicine.

Boy Gets Wheelchair

   In March, 2005, while on the Gehlen Catholic Student Mission Team, Richard Seivert, director of Gehlen Catholic Mission Honduras and Mission Honduras LeMars, was invited to meet a blind, 4-year-old boy suffering from spina bifida.  Along with Sr. Val Knoche, Carolyn Bickford, Kara Krienert, and Elizabeth Andersen, Seivert met the boy and his family.  The first picture shows that initial meeting in March, 2005, when the family requested a wheelchair for their son.  The second picture shows the little boy a few months later with his new wheelchair, purchased by Mission Honduras LeMars.  Seivert said, “The boy has done very well with his new chair, and it has made life much easier for the family.  The family says many thanks for MHL.”

Richard Seivert, director Mission Honduras LeMars & Sr. Val Knoche with young boy & his mother

Francis Seivert visits the boy after he has received his new wheelchair purchased with Mission Honduras LeMars funds