As a member of the North Hills Community Baptist Church (NHCBC), I’ve been working with AMOS Health and Hope for nearly a decade now. This organization tracks its history back to a time where Nicaragua first began its political instability in the 1980s. AMOS’ mission is to serve those rural Nicaraguans who have been “left behind” with Public Health practice.
AMOS’ founder, Dr. Gustavo Parajon spent the formative years of his life issuing vaccinations in rural Nicaragua to help those populations. Dr. Parajon then adopted a model of training “health promoters” to affirmatively visit families in the area instead of waiting for people to “come to the doctor.”
Pursuant to this founding, AMOS continues to serve in this way, training health promoters, and providing public health care for rural communities.
This year’s mission, sponsored and financially supported by NHCBC, was to serve two communities in Nicaragua’s Carribbean Autonomous Zone: Banco De Sikia1 and Nawawasito2. These two communities are found about 20km east of El Ayote3 (see map here). Our delegation had three tasks:
- Install water filters for families
- Perform facility repairs on each of the two community health clinics
- Hold dental clinics for children in each of the two communities.
If you want to check out the company that manufactures the household water filters, you can visit AquaClara.org here
Vlog posts
In previous trips to Nicaragua, I have attempted journaling but that lasts only a couple of days before I get too tired and then just don’t do it. This year I decided to simply record thoughts and updates as the week progressed. Below are the Vlog posts from the week along with tangential information about each day.