Americares is committed to helping El Salvador expand access to quality health care for more Salvadorans. In addition to disaster preparedness, disaster relief, and ongoing medical and humanitarian aid with two primary in-country partners, we provide high quality primary health care through the Americares Family Clinic. And we have opened an Americares office in San Salvador to expand our community health work with local partners.
El Salvador with a land area the size of Massachusetts has the highest population density in Central America. The government’s efforts to provide free public healthcare has created a demand that far exceeds resources. The government provides free public health care, but the demand far exceeds available resources. More than 75 percent of the population is cared for by the national health system, but not all have easy access to the services, or there isn’t capacity to meet their health needs while they face many of the health issues associated with poverty.
Mobilizing the community for better health. Read the story.
A Family in El Salvador Finds a Pathway to Health
Americares began working with our partner, Order of Malta, in country in 1984. We began delivering emergency aid in 1986, in response to a devastating earthquake that struck in the midst of the country’s 12-year civil war. Since then, Americares has providing ongoing Access to Medicine – distributing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of medicines and medical supplies to the country.
Through two partners, the Asociación Nacional de El Salvador el la Soberana Orden de Malta (ANESOM) and Fundación Salvadoreña para la Salud y el Desarrollo Humano (FUSAL), Americares donations of medicines and medical supplies reach hundreds of health care facilities including hospitals, clinics, health posts and children’s and elderly homes.
Our earthquake response in 2001 led to the building of the Americares Family Clinic which opened in 2003. Our Clinic also distributes medical aid, primarily in the eastern part of the country.
Since it opened in October 2003, the Americares Family Clinic – Clínica Integral de Atención Familiar – has offered a low-cost, high-quality alternative to free public clinics and high-cost private practices. Local families in El Salvador can get an array of services including general medicine, pediatrics, gynecology, dentistry and health education outreach. The clinic sees nearly 30,000 patients each year and serves as a model health care institution for the eastern region of the country. You can follow the work of the Clinic and all of our work in El Salvador on Facebook.