Bringing Crucial Resources to our Sisters in Nicaragua

August 1, 2006

Last month, our partners at CADAMUC Clinic—a full-service health clinic on the rural North Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua—let us know that they were struggling to provide care for their patients; the ultrasound machine they had been using had become unreliable, and suddenly stopped working altogether due to constant use. The use of ultrasound technology saves many lives among the 10,000 patients they see each year. With the help of MADRE members like you, we were able to send funds immediately to CADAMUC, enabling them to purchase a new ultrasound machine.

CADAMUC's patients come from communities where 50 percent of all babies are born to adolescents between 11 and 19 years old; without proper prenatal care, these pregnancies pose significant health risks to both the teen mother and baby. The new ultrasound machine at CADUMUC will allow the clinic's staff to resume performing 20 to 40 sonograms a day. This testing helps identify and monitor high-risk pregnancies, as well as other internal conditions not related to pregnancy.

CADAMUC also works to prevent unwanted pregnancies through its Sexual Rights and Reproductive Rights Program, which trains young people in Puerto Cabezas, Waspam, and the surrounding rural communities to spread accurate information about sexual rights and reproductive health issues. The clinic trains community youth as health promoters; they produce and disseminate flyers, posters, and brochures·written in the three languages spoken on the North Atlantic Coast and heavily illustrated·that cover issues such as family planning, nutrition, and human rights. The CADAMUC-trained health promoters work with youth in high schools on sensitive issues that are not regularly discussed, such as contraceptives, prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), gender-based violence, early marriage, childrearing practices, drug abuse, and personal hygiene, using a "train-the-trainers" model that ensures widespread dissemination of information.