DGH Fall/Winter 2004 - Nicaragua Projects Update

Update on Nicaragua Projects:
From Managua to Mulukukú

Acahual Women's Clinic, Acahualinca Barrio, Managua. The clinic provides medical care with two doctors, one for the half day of the mornings and the other, funded through DGH, for the afternoons. Comprehensive care provided includes screening for cervical cancer and treatment of cervical lesions. The clinic also manages activities for children in a nearby library and provides continuing education sessions for its health promoters. The clinic truly practices community oriented primary care and is very active in the community. The clinic has recently organized a group of gays and lesbians who are in crisis. They also hold public health-based group meetings with sex workers. In addition, the clinic coordinates its services with families of the nearby Dos Generaciones Center.
Top Left: Playful young resident of Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. Top Right: Life in the huge dump of the Acahualinca Barrio in Managua, Nicaragua. Bottom Right: DGH Board Members visiting Casa de la Mujer in Tipitapa, Nicaragua.

Dos Generaciones, Acahualinca Barrio, Managua. Students at Davidson College in North Carolina continue their special DGH project support and fund raising for Dos Generaciones. The Programa de Niños Trabajadores de Acahualinca continues with emphasis on training of the entire family for skills that will lead to jobs giving them an alternative to the dismal work in the dump (La Chureca). Trainees and staff participated in the construction of a new community library next to the Center.
Edgard Lang Clinic and Pharmacy, Barrio Edgar Lang, Managua. The new DGH-funded APS Edgard Lang Clinic of the APROPOCAPO community association is providing much primary health care for this very poor Barrio. They hope to expand the hours of physician services. The clinic has recently added a better gynecological examining table to replace the modified table. A clinic laboratory with a technician now provides diagnostic services on site. The low-cost pharmacy is slowly expanding and provides a major remedy for the largest barrier to medication access: cost. Currently, DGH funding from the wonderful bequest of DGH Founding Board Member Sandy Kemp provides support for the clinic. A DGH volunteer has begun to study the impact of the clinic on the neighborhood.
La Conquista Poultry Project. This new project, also currently funded by the Sandy Kemp bequest, has been quickly implemented by Dr. Contreras and the health promoters of the rural region around the village of La Conquista. Seventeen strong post and wire enclosures are now set up mostly in remote sites at a cost of approximately USD$200 each. Cooperatives of neighbors are working to create an efficient and sanitary poultry and egg production micro-enterprise. With training from an agronomist, each health promoter has made agreements with six to eight neighbor families to jointly run a poultry project near their homes. They are taught how to properly manage and administer vaccines to the chickens, bringing preventive health to a previously unserved rural chicken population. There are many communities that could benefit from similar chicken co-op project, which offers nutrition and economic development. DGH hopes to expand if much needed funding is available.
Casa de la Mujer, Tipitapa. There are many needs in the poverty stricken city and rural areas of Tipitapa where the Nora Astorga Casa de la Mujer struggles to provide legal counseling and mental health therapy for abused women. Serving hurricane disaster survivors and maquila workers, the Center is opening a free primary care clinic and pharmacy. They are also planning to train a new class of health promoters.
Health Promoters. The most amazing people that DGH assists are the growing number of health promoters who work as volunteers in their communities throughout Nicaragua. With kits of medicines and supplies they give front-line primary care to the many rural areas that are their homes. Monthly training sessions bring them together where they interact and share their experiences. They are experts in community diagnosis and community development. Recently, they have been starting poultry and sewing cooperatives. They vie for fencing and sewing machine supplies as diligently as they do for medical supplies.
Garden Project, Ometepe Island. A small project is being developed with the agronomist training the health promoters in gardening. The gardens then become a training ground for children in agricultural techniques, such as piped irrigation. The children will supply food produced in the garden to others in need.
Maria Luis Ortiz Cooperative and Women's Center Mulukukú, Northern Autonomous Region. DGH volunteers are playing an increasing role in the Center, which is located in the remote site of Mulukukú, a very large, underserved area. Outstanding programs and moving experiences are the norm in the Center's clinics, counseling and shelter activities, such as the Defense of Women and Children Against Violence project. Volunteers have recently worked to survey tuberculosis prevalence and strengthen data systems for cervical cancer detection and care. The Center is working to start a class of health promoters to increase out-reach to more people in the surrounding area.

In This Issue:

DGH Profile: Saul Contreras Martinez
Update on DGH Nicaragua Projects
El Salvador: Changing from Within
Musings from the Home of Chaparestiki
A Day's Life... Shirley Novak
Human Rights Around the World
Your Contributions to DGH Go Far
DGH Announcements

Search the DGH Web Site Now!

Legal Notice

Update on Nicaragua Projects: From Managua to Mulukukú

Acahual Women's Clinic, Acahualinca Barrio, Managua. The clinic provides medical care with two doctors, one for the half day of the mornings and the other, funded through DGH, for the afternoons. Comprehensive care provided includes screening for cervical cancer and treatment of cervical lesions. The clinic also manages activities for children in a nearby library and provides continuing education sessions for its health promoters. The clinic truly practices community oriented primary care and is very active in the community. The clinic has recently organized a group of gays and lesbians who are in crisis. They also hold public health-based group meetings with sex workers. In addition, the clinic coordinates its services with families of the nearby Dos Generaciones Center.	Top Left: Playful young resident of Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. Top Right: Life in the huge dump of the Acahualinca Barrio in Managua, Nicaragua. Bottom Right: DGH Board Members visiting Casa de la Mujer in Tipitapa, Nicaragua.
Dos Generaciones, Acahualinca Barrio, Managua. Students at Davidson College in North Carolina continue their special DGH project support and fund raising for Dos Generaciones. The Programa de Niños Trabajadores de Acahualinca continues with emphasis on training of the entire family for skills that will lead to jobs giving them an alternative to the dismal work in the dump (La Chureca). Trainees and staff participated in the construction of a new community library next to the Center. Edgard Lang Clinic and Pharmacy, Barrio Edgar Lang, Managua. The new DGH-funded APS Edgard Lang Clinic of the APROPOCAPO community association is providing much primary health care for this very poor Barrio. They hope to expand the hours of physician services. The clinic has recently added a better gynecological examining table to replace the modified table. A clinic laboratory with a technician now provides diagnostic services on site. The low-cost pharmacy is slowly expanding and provides a major remedy for the largest barrier to medication access: cost. Currently, DGH funding from the wonderful bequest of DGH Founding Board Member Sandy Kemp provides support for the clinic. A DGH volunteer has begun to study the impact of the clinic on the neighborhood. La Conquista Poultry Project. This new project, also currently funded by the Sandy Kemp bequest, has been quickly implemented by Dr. Contreras and the health promoters of the rural region around the village of La Conquista. Seventeen strong post and wire enclosures are now set up mostly in remote sites at a cost of approximately USD$200 each. Cooperatives of neighbors are working to create an efficient and sanitary poultry and egg production micro-enterprise. With training from an agronomist, each health promoter has made agreements with six to eight neighbor families to jointly run a poultry project near their homes. They are taught how to properly manage and administer vaccines to the chickens, bringing preventive health to a previously unserved rural chicken population. There are many communities that could benefit from similar chicken co-op project, which offers nutrition and economic development. DGH hopes to expand if much needed funding is available. Casa de la Mujer, Tipitapa. There are many needs in the poverty stricken city and rural areas of Tipitapa where the Nora Astorga Casa de la Mujer struggles to provide legal counseling and mental health therapy for abused women. Serving hurricane disaster survivors and maquila workers, the Center is opening a free primary care clinic and pharmacy. They are also planning to train a new class of health promoters. Health Promoters. The most amazing people that DGH assists are the growing number of health promoters who work as volunteers in their communities throughout Nicaragua. With kits of medicines and supplies they give front-line primary care to the many rural areas that are their homes. Monthly training sessions bring them together where they interact and share their experiences. They are experts in community diagnosis and community development. Recently, they have been starting poultry and sewing cooperatives. They vie for fencing and sewing machine supplies as diligently as they do for medical supplies. Garden Project, Ometepe Island. A small project is being developed with the agronomist training the health promoters in gardening. The gardens then become a training ground for children in agricultural techniques, such as piped irrigation. The children will supply food produced in the garden to others in need. Maria Luis Ortiz Cooperative and Women's Center Mulukukú, Northern Autonomous Region. DGH volunteers are playing an increasing role in the Center, which is located in the remote site of Mulukukú, a very large, underserved area. Outstanding programs and moving experiences are the norm in the Center's clinics, counseling and shelter activities, such as the Defense of Women and Children Against Violence project. Volunteers have recently worked to survey tuberculosis prevalence and strengthen data systems for cervical cancer detection and care. The Center is working to start a class of health promoters to increase out-reach to more people in the surrounding area.