The Nueva Vida Clinic Health Promoter Project went on hold during COVID outbreaks. Now that 86% of Nicaraguans have at least one dose of a COVID vaccine and 64% are fully vaccinated, we have decided to open back up the Health Promoter Project.
What is the Health Promoter Project?
We have 20 promoters in this project. They
open their homes to the community around them in order to serve people who need
immediate health care…here are some examples:
- Let’s call the first person in need “Martha”. Martha is feeling woozy and she has hypertension and type 2 diabetes. It's nighttime and going to the hospital is a long 45-minute walk, or if a bus comes by it is a 20-minute ride. Plus, the neighborhood is dangerous after dark. So Martha opts to go to the promoter’s home only a few blocks away. The promoter “Ana” asks her questions, takes her blood pressure, temperature, and tests her blood glucose…all of which Ana has been trained to do by the medical staff in the clinic. These tests will help Ana determine what might be going on. Ana then talks to Martha to help her to figure out if she can wait until morning when our clinic is open, or take the meds that Martha already, has or go straight to the hospital.
- Our second person is "Josue"…nine years old and he has suffered from asthma since he was three. It is 2 AM, and he wakes his mom up with his wheezing. She takes him to the promoter in their area, "Miguel", who is trained to triage asthma. He listens and watches Josue after giving him two puffs of a rescue inhaler. Miguel talks to the mother and Josue, trying to create an atmosphere of calm, all the while watching how Josue is breathing. After 10 minutes, Josue is breathing easier and Miguel gives the mom the inhaler and instructs her to take Josue to the clinic in the morning.
- Our third person is "Alejandro", who
while chopping wood in the early morning with his machete slices his arm as the
machete slips. His wife helps him get to "Teresa'' for first aid. Teresa
is the promoter on their block and looked after Alejandro’s wife when she was
pregnant with their third child. Teresa cleans the wound and pulls the skin
together as well as she can with the supplies that our clinic gave her. She
wraps it, but tells Alejandro he has to go to the hospital to get stitches, as
the wound is too deep and too long for it to heal well on its own.
- Our fourth person is "Lisa", who is five years old. She has come home early from kindergarten; her cheek is swollen and she is in tears. “Enrique”, Lisa’s older brothe,brought her home because their mom is at work. Grandma is bed-ridden. Grandma tells Enrique to take Lisa to see his uncle, "Tomas", who is a health promoter. Tomas was trained by dental volunteers as well as by our medical staff. He looks at Lisa and examines her mouth. She has a rotten tooth. The clinic is open and he takes Lisa to our dentist who puts her on an antibiotic and a pain reliever before giving Tomas an appointment for Lisa to return for an extraction.
These are some of the many ways that the health
promoters respond from their own homes.
Outside their homes, they keep a pulse on
changing community needs, and they let us know what is going on. They help us
keep an eye on patients who are at a higher risk than others.
They also do home visits with Elizabeth, our
general physician, and Emir, who oversees the Health Promoter Program. Last
week, while on their home visits, they found a diabetic patient of ours whose
blood glucose was over 500…that is five times what it should have been. She had
drunk some milk with a banana blended in it. Elizabeth talked with the woman,
treated her to bring down the glucose level, and the promoter then knew to return
for another check-up visit on this patient soon.
In their walk-abouts in the Nueva Vida
community, another patient was a pregnant mother who it turns out had actually
miscarried and was doing poor physically. Elizabeth sent her to the hospital to
make sure the uterus was completely expelled. The promoter then knew to
follow-up with the grieving mother.
This Health Promoter Program is vital. It is the
most cost-effective program that we provide in the clinic. These promoters
learn, share their knowledge, open their homes, visit others in their beds, and
provide services at night and on the weekends that no one else provides.
Besides monthly classes on various topics, we
provide the promoters with first aid kits containing needed supplies and a
small stipend each month. The Nueva Vida Clinic expects to see 9,600 patients
this year, and the total cost of the Health Promoter Program is $15,380. Will
you help?
Sponsor one month’s stipend for a health
promoter - $15
Sponsor 20 patients - $25
Sponsor one month of supplies for a first aid
kit - $50
Donate now: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca
