Who We Are

Who We Are - Our History

In 1998 Hurricane Mitch left a path of devastation across Central America.
As a result of Mitch, 240 people were killed, 19 are missing and approximately 59,000 were left homeless. Mitch entered El Salvador on October 30th 1998 through its eastern region, the most badly hit in the country. The storm initially affected the states of San Miguel, La Unión, Usulután and La Paz and then it went over the remaining territory including San Salvador. Damages were mainly caused by the overflow of Río Grande de San Miguel and the Lempa Rivers, which caused floods, mud slides and land slides, damaging roads and isolating the eastern portion of the country. Eight weeks later, a group of doctors from Winthrop University Hospital went to EL Salvador to give medical aid to those in need.

On Jan 13,2001 , a series of earthquakes again laid waste to portions of El Salvador.There were 944 dead, ? seriously injured and over a million victims in all. 63% of the country's hospitals were damaged. The doctors from WUH reorganized and sent a new delegation to El Salvador to help care for the wounded and those displaced by the country's misfortune. On returning, the decision was made to form a group that would not only go down to EL Salvador during emergencies but would be an ongoing presence in helping the poor children of El Salvador. Pediatricians for Central America's Children was thus born.

In collaboration with Manos Amigas, a local NGO, PFCAC helped build a clinic in Miraflores. Staffed with a doctor and a nurse, the clinic is the first source of health care for the townspeople. PFCAC continues to pay for the salary of the physician and the nurse that staff the clinic as well as the utility costs of the clinic. We stock the pharmacy of the clinic, bringing medication with us when we go on our twice yearly

The townspeople of Miraflores made it clear in a meeting that their need for clean water for themselves and their family were of the upmost priority. PFCAC teamed up with Living Waters, another NGO, to drill a well next to the clinic. By drilling deep enough to ensure that water flow was rapid enough, the well produced uncontaminated water for the community.

The physicians staffing the clinic have reported a significant decline in diarrheal disease in the community after the well was up and functioning. Subsequent testing done by Engineers without Borders, found the well to be the sole source of uncontaminated water in the immediately surrounding community

We've partnered with Engineers without Borders-NY in 2007 to bring the benefits of modern engineering to the towns of El Salvador in the form of public health projects. We'll be looking for projects that will benefit the community on our next trip

PFCAC has been working at the clinic at Rancho Camado in the Northeast region of El Salvador since 2005. Built with funds from Patch Adams, designed by Dave Sellers and constructed by Jet Blue flight attendants led by Cindy Paulus, the clinic is the sole source of care for many residents of this region and neighboring Honduras. PFCAC lobbied to have the clinic staffed by health providers from the government and recently the government began sending a doctor and a nurse.