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On September 16, 1994, Jaime Mauricio Solorzano Campos drowned trying to cross the Chiquito River. As a volunteer with Medicos del Mundo (local mission of Médecins du Monde, France) he was carrying used clothing to desperately needy residents of the community of Estancia in northeastern El Salvador. Jaime was a young pharmacy student working with his fiancee, medical student Patricia Flores. Patricia's classes at the medical college at the National University of El Salvador had included community health study with Medicos del Mundo.
The low water during dry months reveals little of the Rio Chiquito's rainy
season danger.
Community members have also suffered crossing the Chiquito River. In 1994 alone, four other people, including two children under 10, drowned here. Children must routinely cross the river to attend school. The medical student volunteers and other health care workers who help this community must cross the river during their two-hour hike up the mountain. The new bridge makes it possible to safely deliver medical and day care supplies and equipment and enables the transport of critically ill patients across the river to health care facilities nearby. The bridge also supports a large volume of pedestrian traffic, including school children and people on their way to local markets.
Guillermo Candela Garcia, a volunteer Spanish engineer, designed the bridge and directed construction, which was done almost exclusively by local residents working with shovels, picks, and hand tools. Approximately half the funding was donated by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees and individuals.
The completion of the bridge
was celebrated in the spring of 1996 with a day-long festival of music, food,
and dancing. More than 600 people from the local community came on foot to celebrate
their accomplishment and their pride in the bridge. DGH and MDS doctors and
health promoters took advantage of the opportunity by constructing health and
nutrition exhibits and performing a well-received educational play emphasizing
the importance of good nutrition and hygiene. (MDS was DGH's partner organization in El Salvador between 1995 and 2004.)