I want to dedicate
this post to my dear friend Ilana and the amazing work she is doing in her
community nestled in the mountainous jungles of northern Nicaragua. Ilana and I
clicked during our pre-service training and have been by each other’s sides, or
at least at the other end of the phone, ever since. We both ended up in small
northern towns in the mountains. Her town is a bit more rural though, and a lot
more green. She is on the edge of the Northern Autonomous region and the
country’s largest nature reserves. In
her town she has a local radio program where she invites people to talk about
their lives and how their decisions have impacted their health and well being, like
using family planning methods, sexuality, and giving birth. She has worked with
organizations to facilitate a bridge being built on the road to a rural village
outside of her town, murals of world maps painted for students to learn about
geography, and has worked extensively with youth, women, and agricultural
workers. She is truly an inspiration to me.
Her current project is
what brings me to write this post. The health center in Ilana’s town lacks many
resources, like health centers around the country. When Ilana asked her health
center director and staff what would make the biggest difference in their
health center, they told her...
an ultrasound machine. Women in the rural areas of
her community, just like women all over the world, suffer from many birth
complications. The ultrasound machine helps predict what these complications
may be so that both mom and baby can come out of the pregnancy healthy.
Currently the women of Ilana’s community have to travel up to 6 hours on a
dusty road to get to the nearest ultrasound machine. This makes pregnancy and
birth extremely dangerous for many women. For a little perspective, the women
in my town have an ultrasound machine about an hour away, because both of our
nearest towns have ultrasound machines and trained staff to use them.
Ilana is currently
looking for your support in this project. She has submitted her request to
Peace Corps and was approved to request money from friends and family back in
the states. Her community is supporting the project by donating training for a
technician and 27% of the resources needed to complete this project. For the
other 73% they need you! The women of her community need you! She has explained
more about the project and there is a link to donate on this site:
Please consider
donating. I consider this an incredibly worth-while cause and it would make a
huge difference for the hundreds of women in this community that give birth
each year.
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| The nearest ultrasound machine to my town and the doctor certified to use it |
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