Our History

The Roatán Volunteer Pediatric Clinic was founded by Arup Roy-Burman MD and Sheila Jenkins MD in 2003. Both Dr. Roy-Burman and Dr. Jenkins developed interests in international health while in pediatric residency training at Stanford and UCSF, respectively; however, despite the active involvement of these universities in international medicine, there was a paucity of opportunities for pediatricians and pediatric residents to volunteer abroad.

While in fellowship training, Dr. Roy-Burman first became involved with Global Healing, training intensive care physicians from the Republic of Georgia. In 2002, Drs. Roy-Burman and Jenkins traveled abroad on sabbatical, with a goal of matching an area in need of pediatric care with a program structured to maximize volunteer opportunities for pediatricians. Finding such a match in Roatán, a series of discussions ensued, coordinated by one of Roatán’s first native divers Alvin Jackson, and including the island’s only pediatrician Dra. Jackie Woods, as well as newly elected Diputado Evans McNabb. As a partnership between Global Healing and the Honduran Ministry of Health, the RVPC opened its doors at the Public Hospital Roatán in the summer of 2003.

With over 20,000 patient visits to date, the RVPC and Global Healing have become well known to the island community. Once regularly staffed with volunteer pediatricians year round, in 2004 the RVPC initiated a local pediatric fellowship program, training one local general practitioner in pediatrics through daily joint patient care with volunteer physicians in the clinic. That same year, the RVPC expanded to offer a year round visiting resident program. With a busy attending pediatrician/local fellow/visiting resident team, patient volume continued to grow, and in 2005, the RVPC added a student internship program, partnering with Student Clinical Opportunities for Premedical Experience (SCOPE) at Stanford University. In 2007 administrative direction was moved to Global Healing and the student program renamed the Health Education and Advocacy Liaison (HEAL) internship.

The success of the RVPC has come from the hard work of over 100 volunteers to date! We would love to thank each and every volunteer. A few individuals who we would like to specially acknowledge:

Dr. Tanya Nauenberg, Stanford pediatric graduate, was our very first pediatric attending volunteer; she is currently in private practice in Santa Cruz, CA. Dr. Nauenberg and other early volunteers received invaluable guidance from our first Medical Director, Dr. Eric Scher, Director of the Pediatric Hospitalist and After Hours Clinic programs at Marin General Hospital. In 2004, Dr Scher led the development of the Pediatric Fellowship Program; currently, our first graduate Dr. Raymond Cherington cares for the underserved children of Roatán through Clinica Esperanza, established by Roatán’s missionary nurse and Global Healing supporter Peggy Stranges. Also in 2004, Dr. Ben Pecht, Medicine-Pediatrics resident at UCSD, inaugurated the Resident Elective, and Corrine Keet of UCSF School of Medicine became our first student volunteer; Dr. Keet is now a graduate of Johns Hopkins pediatrics. More recently, in 2005, Stanford undergraduates Jennifer Miller and Natalie Ramos formally developed the student internship program; both continue to support the program while in medical school.

Finally, we would like to thank Alice Gruber, RN for her coordination of volunteers as well as Dr. Howard Gruber, our current Medical Director, for his continuing leadership in helping the programs in Roatán develop to their maximal potential.