Business brings hope to El Salvadorian town

New health clinic to open this month

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007

Click here to enlarge this photo Photo provided by Kevin Bohrer Dr. Enma Alfaro, a native of El Almendro, El Salvador, will begin offering health care to town residents at a new clinic opening later this month with the help of Gaithersburg businessman Kevin Bohrer.

More than half of the employees at his landscaping company, Goshen Enterprises Inc., hail from the impoverished El Salvadoran town of El Almendro. Over the years, crew members have returned to El Almendro to visit their families, coming back with stories about a down-trodden quality of life. The more Bohrer learned, the more he was driven to help.

A health clinic, funded in part by his company, will open in El Almendro later this month, putting an end to the 45-minute walk on deteriorated roads that the town’s roughly 700 residents currently make to get to basic medical care, Bohrer said. The nearest full hospital is about an hour by car, he said.

‘‘If we could get health care a little closer, our guys, when their kids have problems and they’re back there, could get health care on a more ready basis,” said Bohrer, president of Goshen Enterprises and a cousin of former Gaithersburg Mayor Edward Bohrer. ‘‘For them to have health care readily available is great.”

Dr. Enma Alfaro, a physician native to El Almendro, will provide both basic and emergency care three afternoons a week, but Bohrer said they hope to further expand operating hours and add more clinical staff. Alfaro currently is the only doctor.

In an e-mail to The Gazette, Alfaro said she most frequently expects to see infections with flu-like symptoms, bronchitis, pneumonia and gastrointestinal illnesses. Most of the patients will be between 1 and 8 years old or over 50 years old, she said.

Alfaro said Bohrer’s contribution will make a big difference for a lot of people.

‘‘Thanks to him, something that was only a dream for the people of the village has become a reality, as the locating and equipping of the clinic is becoming final,” she wrote. ‘‘There is much still to do, but Kevin continues to support us as we finish this work.”

Goshen Enterprises donated $4,000 for construction of the 500-square-foot facility, which the El Almendro Town Council had planned but ran out of money to complete. It’s a single-floor building with one room for patients, a small waiting area, a small storage room and an outside waiting area.

The company also is picking up the tab for employing the medical staff, Bohrer said

To broaden its altruistic mission, the company partnered with St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg.

Donations to Goshen Enterprises’ ongoing social projects in El Almendro can be made directly to the church.

‘‘I’m trying to get the word out through local churches to get more donated to staff [the clinic] a little more full time,” Bohrer said. ‘‘Perhaps we can secure some more funding and more of an awareness of some of the people who are less fortunate.”

The Rev. Rory Conley of St. John Neumann said hopes the church will decide within a few weeks how to help out, either through a one-time donation or as a continuing project.

‘‘I think it’s a wonderful idea and I think it’s impressive Kevin took this on himself, that he wanted to do it for the sake of the men that work for him,” Conley said.

There’s a definite need in El Almendro for assistance beyond just improved medical care, too, Bohrer said.

El Almendro is located in the southeast corner of El Salvador near the city of Usulutan, which is comparable to Rockville in size and functions as the county seat, Bohrer said.

Most homes in El Almendro’s small farming community are made from adobe or brick and cement, said Bohrer, who traveled there three times last year.

Agriculture and cattle ranching dominates the local economy, with an average daily wages between $5 and $7, at about 75 cents an hour, Alfaro said.

Goshen Enterprises also has donated a computer to a teacher in El Almendro and built a store within the local school where students can sell items to generate school revenue, Bohrer said. The school hosts about 500 students and its current playground is about as large as a tennis court, but Bohrer said they’re considering doubling its size.

‘‘We’re so fortunate here in our society to have the things that some others don’t and it’s nice to be able to give back, whether in our own community or another,” Bohrer said.

Staff Writer Sebastian Montes contributed to this report.