Philip Tamminga, Nicaragua
A Canadian reports from Nicaragua
For the past year, the Canadian Red Cross has been working with Nicaraguan Red Cross to implement a Community Health Care project in the municipalities of Estelí, La Trinidad, and Tipitapa. The project aims to improve the health conditions of over 7000 vulnerable families through health education, promotion and prevention activities and by strengthening local capacities to respond to priority health needs. The three-year project is being financed by the Canadian Red Cross and the Canadian International Development Agency. Canadian Red Cross Project Manager Philip Tamminga is based in Managua, and sends this report from the field:
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Philip Tamminga meets beneficiary. | |
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The invitation was compelling. “You have to come to Chagüite Blanco and meet the volunteers who couldn’t attend today’s event,” said Pilar Gonzaléz. Pilar is one of the coordinators of a Red Cross Community Health Care project that the Canadian Red Cross is supporting in Nicaragua. The event in question was a recent graduation ceremony of over 150 community volunteers who are participating in the project. Some of the volunteers had left their homes as early as 4:00 a.m., traveling on foot for four or more hours before taking the three-hour bus ride to Managua for the ceremony. It seemed only fair to reciprocate with a visit to Chagüite Blanco.
A few days later I set out from Managua with members of the Nicaraguan Red Cross project coordination team, graduation diplomas in hand, for La Trinidad, about 120km north of the capitol city of Managua. From there we continued along a tortuous road climbing through the mountains, to the village of Las Correderas, where the hike to Chagüite Blanco begins. Cecilia Cruz, a public health nurse, is our guide through the maze of paths that criss-cross the mountains. Along the way, there are breathtaking vistas, glimpses of distant volcanoes, and picturesque villages surrounded by a patchwork of plots and fields. But a closer look reveals the truth: the corn, a staple food here, is twisted and stunted from a prolonged drought in the area, and parcels of coffee crops are overrun with weeds, the plunge in international coffee prices has made harvesting and processing too expensive for most small-scale producers.
After about an hour of steady climbing, we arrive at scattering of adobe houses, and ask the way to the community centre, where Pilar and Sandra, the nurse at the nearest health post, are finishing up a training session with volunteers from Chagüite Blanco and nine other rural villages nearby. The volunteers are learning how to identify common illnesses like malaria, dengue, respiratory illnesses, and diarrheal diseases and when to refer urgent cases to the medical clinic. Early detection and treatment, along with health prevention, education and promotion, is one way that the Community Health Care project hopes to improve the health conditions of these communities.
The class is impressed when we arrive. “We didn’t think you would make it up the mountain laughs María Mercedes Gonzáles. A mother of three, Maria was a traditional midwife before volunteering with the project. Now she is receiving training in other areas of health care. She likes the integrated approach of the project. “Before, I was just focused on the pregnant mothers,” she says. “Now, I am looking at the health situation of the entire family, and when I run into problems, I have a team of other health promoters to support me.”
Elias González, a community leader from the nearby village of El Bonete, takes a few moments to explain why the project is so important. “In the health posts, there often are no medicines or supplies, and when someone is really sick, we have to carry them down the mountain in a hammock for four or five hours to get them to the hospital,” he says, “This project will help a lot because people are being trained to prevent health problems, and that means a lot less suffering for the people here.”
Another volunteer, María Guadalupe Ruíz Molina, confirms the community’s commitment to the project. “We feel like these villages have been abandoned. No one comes to work here with us. So when the Red Cross decided to work here, it really motivated the community to get involved and support the project. Now we feel like we are contributing, that working together with the Red Cross we can make a difference,” she says proudly.
As we prepare to leave Chagüite Blanco, one of the volunteers approaches to thank me. “It means a lot for us that you came,” she says. “It’s a huge motivation to know that our work is appreciated and recognized.” I pause for moment and reflect on what I have seen. These volunteers face incredible hardships, and yet they dedicate their time to helping their community. It is the essence of what the Red Cross movement is about: the true power of humanity. “No,” I tell her. “Thank you!”
