Hola Friends and Family!

       I feel extremely blessed and excited for the opportunity to start a new adventure in Nicaragua this summer! I'll be volunteering with Engineering World Health's Summer Institute Program to fix medical equipment, translate manuals, and teach Doctors how to use donated equipment in local hospitals. I’m looking forward to working together with the local communities towards the goal of improved and sustained healthcare.
       I would love to share this adventure with you and while I'd love to buy you all plane tickets to Central America, I can barely afford my own so that option is a no go. Instead, I'll just post to this stellar blog throughout the summer with pictures and updates of my time, as adventurous or uneventful as it is so be sure to subscribe! 
       Oh and speaking of barely affording my own ticket.. check out the sidebar for ways you can support me :) or continue reading for more info about why I'm choosing to spend my summer volunteering.

Why Medical Equipment?

        Millions of dollars in equipment are donated to developing settings each year. Here’s some rough estimates from EWH research to sum up the situation:

·         39% of medical equipment arrives in unusable condition

·         After 5 years, an additional 58.5% is unusable

This leaves 2.5% of those millions of dollars of medical equipment that these hospitals can actually use! Medical equipment can arrive unusable due to missing components, defects, lack of manuals for training, and more. And even if it is in useable condition the years after are spent battling to find consumables, spare parts, tech support and skilled technicians to upkeep equipment. The result is a decrease in the quality and access of healthcare in these settings. 

What is the Summer Institute?

      This is a program sponsored by Duke University and Engineering World health aimed at building capacity for equipment maintenance and repair in developing settings. During the first month participants stay with a host family in Granada, Nicaragua where they take instrumentation classes and intensive Spanish lessons. The second month, participants move to a second home stay (mine is in Jinotega) where they'll be working in the local hospital providing technical support with one other participant.

Check it Out:

     In addition to summer institute, EWH promotes other locally sustainable programs such as the training of Biomedical Engineering techs in developing settings. Check out their site for more about their mission here: www.ewh.org. 

Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog! I'd love to hear from you so feel free to leave your comments below!

Becca