Celebrating 25 years of family & community health care!
“The aftermath of Hurricane Mitch is as horrifying as the storm itself.”
Kathleen wrote those words a few weeks after Mitch hit Nicaragua in 1998 to describe the situation in Nueva Vida, the hurricane refugee camp where our health clinic is now located. Her descriptions of the hurricane in our newsletter are shocking to me even today.
25 years ago - the beginnings of Nueva Vida
The 12,000 refugees in Nueva Vida had no housing beyond black plastic lean-tos, no latrines, no running water or electricity, no jobs, and little food. But the most pressing need was for health care. Back in 1998, the neoliberal government had effectively privatized healthcare, and patients who were lucky enough to get in to see a doctor couldn’t afford to buy the medicines they were prescribed. Conditions in Nueva Vida meant that dengue, malaria, and diarrhea were rampant. We did a survey of children in the community and discovered that 61% were malnourished. Nueva Vida needed a health clinic.
Nine months after the hurricane, our organizing work in the community and fundraising work with supporters bore fruit: we opened the Nueva Vida Clinic! As Kathleen described it, we began “running a health clinic by the seat of our pants.”
early clinic in a tent - donated medicine in buckets - no building yet
While we no longer run the clinic by the seat of our pants, the essence of our work – what we do, why we do it, and how we do it – has changed very little over the past 25 years.
“Being a small organization,” Kathleen wrote in 1998, “trying to see where we best fit in has been difficult. What we have discovered is that the best thing about us is that we are flexible! We fit into all the cracks that are forgotten.”
After 25 years, we continue to fit into those cracks where Nicaragua’s improved public care system can’t yet reach - always by working with the community through our 31 lay health promoters to meet the most pressing needs even as those needs change and grow.
Today, the Nueva Vida Clinic offers much more than acute medical care; We are the heart of integrated family health care for the community, offering:
General medicine for all ages five days a week
Chronic care – monthly check-ups with 150 patients plus medications & labs
Psychology – special emphasis on family violence, addiction and children with special needs
Dental care – cleaning, sealing & fixing teeth in addition to extractions
Point-of-care ultrasounds for quick detection and treatment of many conditions
Laboratory –basic lab tests available plus H. Pylori & STI screenings
Medicines – all patients receive prescribed medication free of charge
Home visits – from doctor to chronic care, vulnerable and pregnant patients in their homes
Special programs for at-risk youth, pregnant women, breastfeeding moms, moms and toddlers, parents of children with asthma and the LGBTQ+ community
Community care – lay health promoters open their homes for first aid care after hours and on weekends
Health Fairs – attending 300 patients in one day in all areas plus specialized care, eyeglasses and public health trainings; these campaigns help us integrate new patients into the clinic for ongoing care
We also continue to fill in the cracks left when other organizations leave the community – in the past few years four private schools have voluntarily closed in Nueva Vida. Additionally, several organizations with important programs have left the area, including ORPHANetwork which once funded 15 child feeding centers in the community as well as partially funding dental care for those children through our dental clinic. We continue stepping into that breach to help when others no longer can, seeking alternative sources of funding to continue programs.
Nueva Vida Clinic dentist training dental student intern
Another aspect of our work that hasn’t changed in 25 years is that we are always short on funds. We believe that access to quality health care is a human right, but we recognize that the patients who need care will never be able to pay the cost of that care without help – it costs $25 to provide one patient with care including consults, medicines & lab test.
Currently 55% of Nueva Vida Clinic patients pay $1.40 for their care… but 45% of Nueva Vida Clinic patients receive care completely free of charge.
So how do we keep the clinic up and running and providing quality care?
People like you. Over 25 years we have always managed to continue services through generous donations. Right now, we are at a low point – donations for clinic operations, especially during the past five years, have not kept up with skyrocketing medicine and supply costs. We urgently need your help to continue to provide quality integrated care.
After Hurricane Mitch in 1999 Kathleen noted, “It is the poverty here that is the major killer. The hurricane was only the weapon.”
By that same token, we can say that today in Nueva Vida, poverty is still our enemy, and the Nueva Vida Clinic is the weapon we have to fight it. We are working shoulder to shoulder with staff, doctors, promoters, patients, and community… working together to fight against poverty.
We need you to work together with us - can you help?
Donate $25 in honor of 25 years of integral health care.
[$25 covers the cost of one patient’s visit to the clinic, all their medicines, lab tests and follow up care.]
Better yet, donate $25 per month as a recurring donation!
Donate $2,500 for a health fair
Our goal: New recurring monthly donations in honor of every delegation that has worked at the clinic over the past 25 years!
- Becca
Please join us and also share on your social media.
Donate here to the ongoing work of the CDCA with the poor in Nicaragua:
https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca