Centro Medico Humberto Parra

Centro Médico Humberto Parra is a non-profit, free medical clinic located in the east Bolivian rain forest. It is funded and operated by the non-profit organization Daniels Hamant Foundation of River Forest, Illinois. The clinic was founded in 2001 by Dr. Susan Hou of Loyola University Medical Center and Dr. Mark Molitch of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.
The clinic aims to improve the health and well-being of poor Bolivians by providing free health care and health services. Serving 12 rural communities, it is the only free medical clinic in the surrounding 40,000-person area.
Clinic history
Centro Médico began in 2001, a year after Dr. Douglas Villarroel, former president of the Bolivian Endocrinology Society and a practicing endocrinologist in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, provided care to the Bolivian agriculturalist Milton Parra. Parra, who owned several thousand acres of land approximately outside of Santa Cruz, donated several acres of this land to Dr. Villarroel. Parra asked that Villarroel establish a clinic providing medicine and medical care to poor Bolivians living in the area, who at that time had extremely limited access to such treatment.
Since 2001, the clinic has treated over 18,000 patients.
Medical focus
The clinic focuses on the long-term treatment of chronic conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. To address these problems, Centro Médico has initiated community-focused grassroots projects. In these projects, Centro Médico volunteers meet with community leaders from each of the 12 surrounding villages to provide "charlas," or brief talks, on nutrition, sanitation, and other personal health issues. Community leaders then replicate these information sessions among members of their respective communities.
Centro Médico has also begun work addressing Chagas disease, solar energy, pediatric parasites, and cervical cancer. A volunteer also recently designed blueprints for a system of solar energy panels to power the clinic.
Partner organizations
First-year medical residents from Northwestern University and Loyola University can choose to work at the clinic for a month as part of their formal medical training.
In June 2007, Centro Médico hosted students and residents as a part of Loyola's International Service Immersion program.

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