While the healthcare debate rages in the United States, one local man is pushing for quality healthcare in a nearby country.

Design boards have now been made, and what started as a passion project for one man on a trip to Honduras, has taken shape right here in Rochester.

“It’s hard for me to describe what I saw and how I felt on this tour, but before this I’d never witnessed death and here I was at 21, seeing it, hearing it and even smelling it,” said Christian Perry, co-founder of the not-for-profit Little Angels of Honduras (LAH).

In 2013, Perry took a tour of the largest public hospital in Honduras, Escuela Hospital. He learned that more than 50 percent of newborns in Honduras with health complications die because the hospital doesn’t have space for them. 

“As an aspiring architect at the time, this was crazy for me to understand that something so simple as space was the cause of deaths of innocent newborns in Honduras,” said Perry.

Working with Rochester Institute Technology students and designers at Clark Patterson Lee, Perry got to work co-founding LAH and designing a 4,200 square foot addition for the hospital in Honduras. 

The mission of LAH is to reduce infant mortality in Honduras by assisting with the provision of optimal conditions for pregnancy, birth, and newborn care. 

“Christian’s passion is absolutely overwhelming,” said Clark Patterson Lee’s junior interior designer Brittany Nowicki. “You can tell, just from the first time you talk to him, that he really cares about what’s going on here.”

The addition will cost about $400,000, which LAH is hoping to raise in the Rochester community where this plan came together. For them, this is just the beginning. 

“I want to see this project get rolling and get off the ground and everything, but I’d also like to see an expansion and see where we can take it from here,” said Nowicki.

“We’re dedicated to reducing infant mortality,” said Perry. “Our roots are deep in Honduras but I think we’re very open to other places we could also help.”

Click here to learn how you can help make the plans for the hospital expansion a reality.