Locations: Various
Web Site: http://www.fusal.org
Founded in 1986, FUSAL is a privately-funded Salvadoran NGO that aims to improve the quality of life for the less fortunate through health education and the provision of medical material aid to over 250 partner health outposts, clinics, and hospitals.
In addition to regular material support of FUSAL since 1989, Direct Relief supplied a custom-designed maternal-child health support module for FUSAL's Unidad Salud Luis Poma medical clinic in San Julian. The clinic serves an AmerIndian population of 40,000 whose ancestry goes back to the pre-Colombian Yaqui and Pipil tribes. The module contained an ultrasound unit, a fetal monitor, birthing beds, baby incubators, adult and baby scales, exam tables, and other patient examination equipment and supplies. The facility will now be able to offer OB/GYN services to a larger number of women and children, with an anticipated 21,000 pre- and post-natal checkups.
FUSAL responded to the new equipment by committing to increase maternal-child health-related staff by hiring an OB/GYN, additional nurses, and midwives.
A Need Arises
Shortly after FUSAL's founding, the earthquake of October 10, 1986 struck San Salvador, demonstrating just how many needs the country had to respond to. Major hospitals and clinics lacked necessary equipment and supplies required to cope with the demands and needs of the affected population, which led Don Luis Poma to conceive the idea of establishing a Medical Assistance Program to manage donations from abroad and channeling them to the various health centers in El Salvador. Since then, FUSAL has expanded its involvement in the community, maintaining its flagship medical assistance program for hospitals, establishing the Luis Poma Health Center, and managing several health, nutrition, and housing projects.
FUSAL's health program works to raise the human development index in the impoverished communities of El Salvador, through the implementation of specific actions to improve the quality of life and level of welfare among the population.
FUSAL runs an innovative model for providing health services that matches the specific needs and characteristics of each community. The health program is comprised of task forces that work in various communities on a daily basis to provide services for health promotion and disease prevention. This work is complemented by the care provided at health centers in the vicinity of each community, which refer more complex cases to the appropriate network referral hospital. Each task force is comprised of a doctor, a nurse and four community health promoters for every 6,000 inhabitants. With this model FUSAL increases the quality, coverage and accessibility of health services for underprivileged communities.
This current health model is being replicated in the islands of the Bay of Jiquilisco, Usulután, in the municipalities of San Julian, Nahuizalco and Juayúa in Sonsonate, and in the town of Tonacatepeque, San Salvador. In each of these locations, FUSAL has multidisciplinary teams of doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, nutritionists, sanitation technicians, teachers, and community health promoters who serve more than 65,000 people.
Since 1996, FUSAL and the Salvadoran Ministry of Health have developed a model of joint provision of health services at the Luis Poma Health Center. To provide better services, construction of a new and modern facility began in 1999. The health center provides all health services and first level care. It also provides dental services and houses a clinical laboratory. Emergency services are offered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. A delivery room and maternity ward provide comprehensive birthing care, a very important tool in reducing maternal mortality.
By having adequate physical facilities and adequate equipment, the Luis Poma Health Center provides high quality services to the population of San Julian and serves as a referral center for surrounding communities. For more complex cases, the health center is supported by the Hospital Jorge Mazzini Sonsonate. In San Julian, FUSAL directly serves a population of 18,500.
Following the earthquakes of 2001, FUSAL responded to the thousands of Salvadorans lacking proper housing. It began its Housing Development Program in 2001 to develop housing projects for low-income families who do not have access to commercial projects. FUSAL has committed to coupling all housing projects with human development projects to create safer, more integrated communities.
The Medical Assistance Program for hospitals seeks to strengthen the quality of services offered by institutions devoted to healthcare for those most disadvantaged in society: public hospitals, health centers, clinics, orphanages and elderly homes, and NGOs. The program also enables health providers to access resources necessary to better serve their patients.
FUSAL's comprehensive nutrition program "Libras de Amor" (Pounds of Love) focuses on alleviating hunger and malnutrition.