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SUSTAINABILITY

We trained 12 community health leaders on our curriculum and provided five community clinics and organizations with materials to continue utilizing the curriculum in future years.

Making this project sustainable was a challenge that required a significant amount of perseverance and a healthy disregard for the impossible.  The largest barrier to our success was our international focus and obtaining funding for our project.  We began this process by contacting potential donors and securing sponsorships for transportation and visa fees.  After funding was procured, we met as a team to develop our health education curriculum. We divided ourselves into 6 groups, each charged with developing a curriculum for our respective health topic. These topics included oral and dental hygiene, hand washing, nutrition, alcohol abuse, sexual abuse, and triage. Each module was designed to last no more than 20 minutes and to be on a 5 to 12 year old educational level. Upon completion of our curriculum development, faculty at Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine and Virginia Tech confirmed the quality of our health education program and our translation of the curriculum into the Spanish language.  Materials necessary for program implementation were then identified and procured with funding received.  Incentive donors were also identified and partnerships were developed to ensure the continuation of donations to our host communities for future iterations of the program.  Additionally, we partnered with health professionals in El Salvador who shadowed our daily instruction. We provided these individuals with the curriculum materials with the understanding that they would continue the program in their communities in future years.

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