A Family A-Fair!
Donate in honor of your family to support Family Health Fairs!
Abuzz with energy. That is how the Nueva Vida Clinic feels when we have a visiting volunteer health brigade - the waiting room fills with patients, the nurses station is a whirl of energy, staff hurry between buildings with supplies, messages, guiding patients.
Nueva Vida Clinic - Health Fair check-in line
We also see people who aren't regular patients at our clinic: we meet families that need support from our health promoters, patients who need our doctor to visit them regularly at home, children who are recommended to the psychologist. We "capture" all these folks for our programs when we have a volunteer health brigade with all its energy.
But while we used to have visiting brigades every month, they now are able to return only once a year… so recently our staff came up with the idea of doing a brigade without volunteer doctors, just with our own staff and support from Nicaraguan university students.
Isamar with Volunteer nursing students - explaining protocols
Our health promoters spread the word and handed out coupons for various available services, and the Health Fair was a huge success!
We saw 311 patients in one day! Many families took advantage of all the different services available. The Clinic was full, it was abuzz with energy.
Psychologist with Las Lobas in action
We got volunteer nursing and dental students to help with intake, triage, injections and IVs. We hired an extra doctor for the day, our nurse did 40 EKGs, our GP took 14 Paps, our dental hygienist did 26 flouride treatments and 21 cleanings, and with volunteers I did eye exams and handed out 68 reading glasses. The Lobas and Leones presented information on all the courses they have completed and the services the Clinic offers. Our lab technician did 6 HIV, 6 pregnancy and 20 H.pylori tests. Our psychologist and community coordinator talked to patients about reproductive health and self esteem. We handed out 50 toothbrushes, 400 condoms, vitamins, antiparasite medication and many more medicines.
Dentist Julio - fixing teeth during Health Fair
This family a-fair needs your help!
Donate in honor of your family this Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or Children’s Day and help Nicaraguan families access quality health care!
It costs us $2,700 to put on a Health Fair for 300 patients, and we'd like to do that on a quarterly basis. Our goal is to raise $2,700 to put on another Fair, can you help?
-Becca