Medical and lay volunteers with MEDICO, a United States based Medical, Eye, and Dental International Care Organization, are excited to serve in the Central American countries of Honduras and Nicaragua. On Saturday, January 19th, field team #112 will depart for Monte Verde in the Department of Intibuca, Honduras for a week long medical mission opportunity serving the impoverished with medical, optometric and dental clinics. They will also carry with them enough medicines to set up a field team pharmacy supporting their clinic efforts. All of this is accomplished despite record high airfare and ground transportation driven by rising fuel costs. Volunteers are quick to grab up what seats are available to participate with the field team, sometimes waiting a year or more before finally departing for these remote work sites. At its inception in 1990 MEDICO, a nonprofit humanitarian service organization, offered volunteers the opportunity to participate on its field teams for only $375 per person which covered all ground logistics and air transportation. Today volunteers pay an average of $1450 for the same opportunity, a 300 percent increase in cost. Even with rising costs MEDICO has seen steady growth in the numbers of volunteers who sign on to field teams, volunteers who participate from across the United States as well as around the world. Field team #112 will be returning to the Monte Verde site, one of MEDICO's Adopt-A-Village locations, to provide this care at no cost to the patients seen, a mandate of each of MEDICO's mission outreaches. MEDICO is a non faith-based organization and is supported through charitable donors and grants. In 2008 MEDICO will provide humanitarian care through seven week-long field teams led by medical and lay volunteers.

Brian Crowe
Director of Operations
MEDICO
512-930-1893
http://www.medico.org