Build Hope -

At Little Angels of Honduras, we are committed to providing all mothers and their newborns with excellent care.

Our team has served Hospital Escuela’s existing newborn unit and their team of doctors and staff since our organization’s inception in 2013. We firmly believe that renovating the existing 5th-floor neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and constructing a new 6th floor NICU addition onto Hospital Escuela will have a great impact on reducing the country’s high infant mortality rate. Together we can give the gift of life to generations of newborns and the gift of hope to their families.

Your partnership will do just that!

Since October 2017, our United States team of healthcare designers, architects and engineers have worked over 2,000 pro-bono hours. We have completed 90% of the construction drawings for a 14,000 s.f. neonatal intensive care unit renovation and addition to the largest public hospital in Honduras, Hospital Escuela University (HEU).

Strategic meetings with the Inter-American Bank of Development (BID), Honduran Secretary of State and Minister of Health have been held Little Angels is responsible to complete 100% of construction documents & drawings by January 1st, 2019.

We are seeking partnerships to finance the remainder of the design fees and services associated with construction and contract drawings which are required to be completed by Honduran licensed architects, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, structural engineers and equipment planners. Please partner with us in this lifesaving initiative by giving a donation for one of the following options (100% of donations will go towards completing the construction drawings):

Design Goals and Objectives:

The brand new NICU will concentrate on the following design goals and objectives:

Maximize Treatment Capacity
Improve Staff Functionality
Implement an Infectious Control Protocol and Standard
Improve the Patient Healing Experience through an Evidence-Based Design Approach
Provide Mothers with Dignity & Hope
Plan for the Flexibility, Future Growth, and Advancement in Technology
Implement Education, Training and Collaboration Spaces
Implement a New Set of Design Standards in regards to Materials, Finishes, and Furniture that meet Healthcare Standards & Requirements
Implement In-patient and Out-patient Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) / Skin-to-Skin Care

The renovated 5th floor and new 6th floor NICU will foster the implementation of the Kangaroo Mother Care program and will permit Hospital Escuela to commence a 24/7 accessibility policy for the mothers of hospitalized infants as well as an outpatient Kangaroo Care clinic to monitor and correct the first year of development in premature infants. Little Angels of Honduras expects, as evidenced by international studies that these two elements (inpatient and outpatient) Kangaroo Mother Care will result in the following:

OBJECTIVE 1: Reduction in infection-associated deaths.

OBJECTIVE 2: Increased quantity of time that hospitalized infants are in skin-to-skin kangaroo position.

OBJECTIVE 3: Increased quantity of mothers that choose to participate in the Kangaroo Mother Care Program.

OBJECTIVE 4: Increased quantity of hospitalized infants that are exclusively breastfed.

OBJECTIVE 5: Lower frequency of infant abandonment.

OBJECTIVE 6: Reduction in average time of newborn hospitalization.

OBJECTIVE 7: Reduction in the number of infants abandoned per year.

OBJECTIVE 8: Reduction in the number of long-term disabilities caused by preterm birth.

Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) / Skin-to-Skin Contact Benefits:

Hospital Escuela current inpatient Kangaroo Mother Care Program occurs between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. Monday-Friday. The Kangaroo Foundation in Colombia requires 24-7 access of mothers to their babies as an integral element of program success. The proposed new design will equip Hospital Escuela to be able to successfully implement both inpatient and outpatient Kangaroo Mother Care.

In September 2013, the United States Agency for International Development announced that Kangaroo Mother Care reduces infant mortality and morbidity in Latin America by approximately 50 percent more than traditional care. In order to see this same reduction in newborn mortality and morbidity at Hospital Escuela in Honduras, it is necessary to create more physical space.

5th Floor Design Overview, 6,900SF:

The proposed renovated 5th-floor design will include intermediate care newborn spaces (including inpatient Kangaroo Mother Care capabilities), minimal care newborn spaces, outpatient Kangaroo Mother Care education training room and exam room for mothers, sufficient amount of storage, and all other support staff spaces for the 5th floor to be fully operational. Intermediate care will feature 40 new spaces for premature newborns including the following: (30) incubators which are capable of supporting inpatient kangaroo mother care, (8) incubators which are isolated in the event of multiple newborns being infected and need to be isolated from the rest of the unit, and (2) incubators which are fully isolated within a negatively pressured room.

Every (2) newborn will share (1) headwall that will include the following medical gases: (3) oxygen, (3) medical air and (3) vacuum. The design is such for the flexibility to keep up with the demands of future expansion. If more intensive care spaces are required in the future, the 5th floor will be equipped with the proper amount of medical gases, electrical outlets, and technology to accept intensive care patients. Planning for the future in a healthcare setting is critical for the success of the unit. Minimal care will feature 20 bassinets for newborns requiring this level of care.

A large lecture room will be dedicated to the outpatient Kangaroo Mother Care program to facilitate group therapy and education for mothers. Adjacent to the lecture space is an exam room which will be used by a multi-disciplinary team of care-providers including a nurse, pediatrician, physical therapist, optometrist, psychologist, and lactation staff to examine each outpatient newborn.

6th Floor Design Overview, 6,200SF:

The proposed 6th-floor addition will include intensive care newborn spaces, a neonatal fellowship classroom, decontamination, clean processing, and sterilization rooms and all other support staff spaces for the 6th floor to be fully operational. Intensive care will feature 20 new spaces for critically ill newborns requiring life-sustaining intervention. Each incubator will have a minimum of 100-120 square feet for proper amount of medical equipment, support, and staff functionality. (1) incubator space will be fully isolated within a negatively pressured room in the event of a critically ill newborn being contagious.

Each newborn will have their own head-wall and will include (3) oxygen, (3) medical air and (3) vacuum. A large multi-functional classroom/conference room will support incoming neonatal fellows to help train future neonatologist for the country of Honduras. These future specialists will be able to provide the following benefits to their country:

Improve the quality of newborn attention with a wider and higher quality informed, criteria.
Provide specialized medical care to newborns at the specialist’s place of work and assume responsibility for replication of neonatal knowledge among existing support staff.
Participate in the reformation of national neonatal health standards and in the processes of educational formation for staff assigned to the areas where neonates are attended. In addition, this classroom will accept visiting medical students from abroad and professionals for continued training programs for staff.

7th Floor / Roof Design Overview, 900SF:

The proposed 7th-floor addition will include mechanical storage, normal and emergency electrical rooms which will supply both the 5th and 6th floors. In addition, the 7th-floor roof will include an electric generator and new rooftop HVAC units which will supply both the 5th and 6th floors.

Estimated Construction Duration:

The proposed design will take an estimated 9-12 months to be substantially complete.

Next Steps:

Little Angels are responsible to complete 100% of the construction drawings by January 1st, 2019. We are seeking partnerships to finance the remainder of the design fees and services associated with construction and contract drawings which are required to be completed by Honduran licensed architects, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, structural engineers and equipment planners. The remaining total costs Little Angels needs to raise is a total of $12,000.

Licensed Honduran architect and business owner, Andres Castillo will be contracted to be the architect of record and will be responsible for converting all Little Angels of Honduras drawings from imperial to metric, oversee the completion of the architectural, engineering, and specifications for the project to be 100% complete, sign and stamp construction drawings and be ready for public bid by January 1st, 2019.

The Board of Directors of Hospital Escuela will assume full responsibility for the long-term sustainability of the new NICU addition.

5th & 6th Floor NICU Renovation & Addition