The hospital that brings everybody

on board.
Carrera 11B Nº 27-01 Tel: (572) 3832356 Cel: 3206567459 or 3148598394
e-mail: barcohospital@barcohospitalhsr.org www.barcohospitalhsr.org
Santiago de Cali – Valle – Colombia NIT: 900.168.662-2
 Who are we?
The Hospital Boat San Raffaele delivers
health services and alternative development
to the displaced peoples, the victims of the
armed conflict, and the impoverished Afro-
Colombian and Indigenous communities
living along the remote Pacific coast of
Colombia.
We specialize in constructing community
support networks, epidemiology projects, risk
assessment, ethno-cultural education, and level I
and II clinical medical services including surgery
and a broad range of specialties.
With almost no road access over the entire Pacific
region of Colombia, the most logical method to
implement these aid and development projects is
by boat. It is under these conditions the Hospital
Boat San Raffaele emerges as a unique and
extremely efficient tool.
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The Team
The Foundation ItaloColombiana del Monte
Tabor is a certified non-profit humanitarian
organization founded in 2007. Our small team
of permanent staff is based out of Cali,
Colombia.
Diego Orlando Posso Paz (founder/president)
was trained as a paramedic and a fireman. He
has dedicated 21 years to the non-profit sector,
carrying out international health projects
between Italy and Colombia. He was
recognized in 2015 by Caracol as one of the
five “Titans” of Colombia for his work with the
Barco Hospital San Raffaele.
Ana Lucia López Salazar (director/co-founder)
is an economist with a specialization in social
management. She worked 25 years in
development with the organization Patrulla
Social del Pacifico before co-founding
Fundacion ItaloColombiana de Monte Tabor. In
2014 she was given the Cafam Award for
Women and recognized in the magazine
Semana as one of thirty leaders in Colombia.
She was recognized again in 2015.
ON MISSIONS: A core medical team of
qualified Colombian health professionals is
contracted along with the boat crew and ethno-
cultural educators. Volunteer services are
provided by visiting physicians and final year
medical students from the University of Cauca.
AT HOME: The administrative and fundraising
team is highly efficient. Office space, boat
mooring, medical equipment and supplies are
all donated. Overhead costs are kept extremly
low and resources are implemented directly into
the communities our programs support.
 The situation…
The 365,000 people living in the Colombian
Pacific experience high levels of preventable
illnesses, infant and maternal mortality, and
infectious diseases. The implementation of
medical care and development aid for these
neglected communities is highly inefficient
and virtually nonexistent due to an array of
factors:

1. The difficult geographic access of the An example project…

vast aquatic region has resulted in a
near total absence of health The rural isolation of the Colombian
infrastructure. Pacific creates a difficult situation for
2. The dispersed population is pregnant mothers and their children.
economically incapable of traveling The inhibitory cost of a long journey to
long distances through mangroves and an urban clinic means that 85% of
rivers to reach the cities for help. childbirths in the region occur in the
3. Physicians are unwilling to work in the home with traditional midwives. Under
region due to security concerns and the these conditions a large part of pre-
armed conflict. natal deaths and birth complications
4. By ignoring socio-cultural occur due to preventable causes.
sensitivities the traditional health Furthermore, the lack of a registry or
initiatives are misunderstood and fail to hospital means these babies are never
reach the diverse populations. given a birth certificate to legally
5. Many inhabitants lack legal identify and grant them the rights of
identification, thus disqualifying them Colombian citizens.
for health, housing, and education aid
from the government. The Foundation Italocolombiana has
thus developed workshops and trained
This perfect storm of obstacles creates a reality over sixty midwives across ethnic,
where most inhabitants of the Pacific region are cultural, and linguistic groups in risk
very rarely treated, if ever. detection for both maternal and infant
complications, expecially in those
cases where transport to the nearest
hospital is necessary.

The Hospital Boat San Raffaele also

implemented a software information
system that registers every patient with
an epidemiological profile, regardless
of their identification status, and this
data is provided to the Colombian
health system so the patients can be
accounted for and included in the
benefit programs.

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Eight years of active duty, 33 missions, 3,500 surgeries,
42,000 attended patients, 2,600 ultrasounds,
4,700 dental visits, 9,000 laboratory exams,
424,250 dispensed medicines…
What do we do?
The Foundation ItaloColombiana del
Monte Tabor specializes in clinical medical
services and health education.
We develop individualized training
strategies with community leaders that are
translatable to a largely illiterate and ethno-
culturally diverse population. Our
pedagogical focus is on primary and
preventative care, including family planning
and domestic abuse awareness.
Clinically we provide free care, from general
consultations to surgeries of medium-low
complexity. This combination of services
yields lasting, high-impact social benefits
that remain well after our departure.
The Hospital Boat San Raffaele complies with
all governmental health codes and is replete
with an operating room, recovery ward,
dentistry bay, pediatric and general
consultation rooms, clinical laboratory,
pharmacy, emergency and ultrasound
equipment, and living quarters for all health
professionals and crew.
Over the past eight years we have visited all
four Pacific departments and more than 18
municipalities, most often acting as the sole
health provider, and always collaborating with
local leaders and institutions.
We concentrate on urgent care, children,
pregnant women, and the elderly with an
emphasis on the displaced population, the
poor, and the indigenous.

The frequently referenced morbidities from the

past 24 missions are:

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4
The foundations of the Boat Hospital San
Raffaele’s work:

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5
 ACOMPLISHED ACTIVITY OVER 8 YEARS
TREATMENT 2009 2010 2011 2012 2014 2015 TOTAL

Annual missions 4 7 11 6 4 1 33

General medical consultations 1,180 3,335 2,810 2,647 749 262 10,983

Specialized consultations (Pediatrics,

Gynecology, Internal Med., 347 1,209 499 2,341 350 344 5,090
Ophthalmology)

Obstetrical ultrasound and prenatal care 370 783 721 655 68 - 2,597

Optometry 95 90 60 60 - - 305

Family planning (including implantations of

295 753 393 517 311 - 2,269
subdermal devices)

Surgeries 164 528 411 167 46 - 1,316

Tubal ligation 121 234 171 60 20 - 606

Dental procedures and consultations 341 2,497 866 549 508 198 4,959

Pap smears 80 242 16 247 117 - 702

Clinical lab 800 1,050 1,108 1,500 - - 4,458

Sexual and reproductive health education
297 3,000 2,000 2,087 1,616 - 9,000
workshops
Delivery of non-perishable foods (kg) - - - - - 400 400

Delivery of drinking water (liters) - - - - - 7,500 7,500

Delivery of medicine 24,695 86,493 129,055 150,830 28,312 4,865 424,250

Delivery of condoms 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 6,000

Over the past eight years the Hospital Boat San Raffaele has completed aproximately thirty three
missions, on which an average of 300 patients are seen daily. Approximately 3,000 patients are
seen per 10-day mission.

We offer health services at an average expense of $13 USD PER PATIENT regardless of medical
procedure, whether it requires surgery, consult, or medicinal treatment. This cost is covered in its
entirety by the resources obtained through grants and donations.

Most importantly our work prevents these people from

seeing their suffering as natural, and for lack of resources,
resigning themselves to illness and death.
 What does it cost?

Our partnership with the Colombian

health care system does not cover our
operating costs. We must forge our own
economic self-sufficiency. For this we
pursue grants and donation
opportunities from individuals,
organizations, and governments.

The cost of one 10-12 day mission is

$40,000 usd. With this we treat 3,000
people directly and impact approximately
9,000 through workshops and classes.

What we need to do our work…

The Hospital Boat San Raffaele has
directly treated over 42,000 patients and
impacted hundreds of communities with our
development work. However, for lack of
resources approximately 10,000 people
seeking medical attention have been turned
away on our missions. This excludes the
thousands we have not yet reached. Such
is the extreme demand in the region.

Over the last eight years our missions

have departed irregularly as we depend
on unreliable government reimbursements
and fundraising campaigns. In order to
properly service the communities we must
carry out monthly missions. Our goal is to
ensure the routine departure of one 10-12
day mission every month of the year.

Carrera 11B Nº 27-01 Tel: (572) 3832356 Cel: 3206567459 or 3148598394

e-mail: barcohospital@barcohospitalhsr.org www.barcohospitalhsr.org
Santiago de Cali – Valle – Colombia