Clinica Verde Will Provide Medical Care to Poor Women, Children in Nicaragua
“Green” clinic features sustainable design, holistic approach, clinical excellence
St. Helena, CA (PRWEB) May 10, 2010
Poor women and girls living in rural Nicaragua will soon have access to a new model of healthcare, thanks to the dream of a former journalist and to more than $700,000 in donations, mostly from private donors and various foundations.
The medical services – focusing on maternal and infant health care – will be provided at a facility called Clínica Verde, which should be operational by the end of this year. It is expected to serve 4,000 children and 1,500 high-risk pregnant women annually.
Clínica Verde is located about 50 miles northeast of Managua, Nicaragua’s capital. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and has the highest rate of adolescent fertility in Latin America.
The clinic will approach health issues holistically, starting with sustainable design and clinical excellence and extending to the nutritional, educational and economic health of women and their families. It will include a community classroom with demonstration kitchen as well as an organic garden, which will be used to teach nutrition and self-reliance.
Clinica Verde was founded in 2007 by former journalist Susan Dix Lyons, a California mother of three and former journalist whose grandparents were friends with former Nicaraguan President Violeta Chamorro and her husband, Pedro. Pedro Chamorro was assassinated in 1978.
That family friendship, which began in the 1970s, began a chain of relationships that led to the Clinica Verde concept. Today, the Chamorro’s daughter, Cristiana, is a partner in the project as well as a member of its board of directors.
“It’s as though each stage of my life has been leading me forward and preparing me for this work,” said Dix Lyons, who put together the group of professionals and supporters that has made Clinica Verde possible.
So far, she and her group have raised more than $700,000 from private donors and foundations, including a $150,000 matching grant challenge from world-renowned Napa Valley vintner Joseph Phelps and 100,000 Euro from the COFRA Foundation of Switzerland.
Dix Lyons said she believes Clínica Verde will provide a global prototype of an environmentally sustainable health clinic that can be replicated in areas of poverty around the world.
Learn more about Clinica Verde at www. clinicaverde. org. Donations can be made through the website or by check mailed to: Clínica Verde, c/o Susan Dix Lyons, 109 Camino Vista. St. Helena, CA 94574. Clinica Verde is a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit.
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