Editor’s Notice: Longtime readers know that Rich Retirement and its writer, The Oxford Membership, take investing significantly…
However we don’t consider it’s all about shares, bonds and choices.
The truth is, typically, probably the most precious investments you may make are those you make in your neighborhood.
So as we speak, we’re that includes an replace from former Oxford Membership CEO and Govt Writer Julia Guth. In it, she talks about her ardour undertaking: The Roberto Clemente Well being Clinic in southwest Nicaragua.
Southwest Nicaragua is a spot of great magnificence, however sadly, it’s much less developed than its surrounding areas, with about 35% of its residents dwelling on lower than $5.50 a day.
This widespread poverty is among the causes Julia co-founded The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic again in 2004. It’s situated close to an award-winning resort and improvement, Rancho Santana, the place many Rich Retirement readers and Oxford Membership Members personal houses and trip.
The Clinic performs a important function in serving to the communities of the southwestern coastal area. It offers the one emergency response service in these distant areas, and it’s a lifeline for 1000’s of sufferers.
It’s this time of yr – after we’re taking inventory of our personal blessings – that we have to attain out to assist others.
Please take a second to learn Julia’s replace on the Clinic under, and when you really feel so inclined, please take into account donating HERE.
– Rachel Gearhart, Writer
In 2004, I based a novel group situated within the second-poorest nation within the Western Hemisphere.
This charitable group – The Roberto Clemente Well being Clinic – is a mannequin, gold star nonprofit supporting tons of of households dwelling in impoverished, rural areas of southwestern Nicaragua.
Our skilled and extremely resourceful groups have a optimistic impression on numerous Nicaraguans in want – they usually do it with a super-low annual price range.
The truth is…
I problem anybody working in well being facilities around the globe
to make the sort of impression
our crew does working with so little…
Think about that we run a crew of 28 full-time and part-time professionals, together with 4 docs, 5 nurses, two ambulance technicians, visiting specialists, a diabetes counselor, a program director, dietary consultants, two pharmacists and an accountant…
The members of our crew function a medical facility 24/7 that additionally offers clear water filtration and distribution, drugs storage, neighborhood natural gardens, schooling, and outreach clinics.
Plus, the Clinic operates the one emergency response service within the area and is effectively geared up to navigate the steep filth roads all through the realm.
And the Clinic does it with a complete price range of lower than $680,000 a yr!
This crew is blessed to have the oversight of two excellent professionals…
Dr. Hazel Ruiz, fluent in English and Spanish, is the primary physician in her household. After graduating from medical college, she began on the Clinic as a medical doctor. She was promoted to Chief Medical Director for the Clinic in 2015. She based the Clinic’s Diabetes Membership to coach and assist these locally affected by the illness.
Dr. Gokhan Mamur (“Dr. Han”) is an esteemed pediatrician who has served because the medical coordinator for the U.S. president and the secretary of state. He has labored in Degree IV neonatal intensive care models, serving to main world improvement organizations and fragile communities around the globe. He joined the Clinic as our CEO earlier this yr.
Our devoted Clinic crew sees a mean of 20,000 sufferers a yr. The crew offers emergency response and pediatric care and treats respiratory sicknesses, coronary heart points and way more. We provide a mean of 14,340 gallons of water a yr to colleges, and we assist over 5,000 individuals a yr with well being, schooling and vitamin.
I hope you agree…
It’s a tremendous accomplishment
to have the ability to assist so many
with so little.
Given the mounting want on this a part of Central America and the expertise of our dependable crew, there’s a lot extra the crew might do if it had extra funds.
Not too long ago, the Nicaraguan crew offered the board of administrators with inspiring, considerate plans for extra tools and expanded providers.
However we are able to’t make it occur with out extra funding. Any quantity you possibly can donate as we speak will go instantly towards the crew and our packages, serving to households within the area enhance their well being and well-being.
However proper now, what’s on the prime of our crew members’ want lists is getting their Clinic dwelling – the principle facility the place they journey to work every day – in respectable form once more.
Our Clinic buildings are in very poor situation, having taken the brunt of a number of main hurricanes and tropical depressions. The roof and partitions of this “secure harbor” for a lot of within the area have been devastated by the wind and rain.
Proper now, we’re in search of funds to assist restore, fortify and modernize our Clinic facility.
Urgently, we’d like $20,000 to fund the brand new plan’s Stage One… the restore stage.
And we’ll want one other $100,000 in a capital marketing campaign to fund Stage Two: modernizing our amenities with new beds, X-ray and ultrasound tools, and storage amenities for medicines.
And we at all times want extra funds to proceed supporting our high-quality, skilled crew and wholesome dwelling packages.
Most households who dwell on this area reside in far-from-ideal circumstances. They share two-room tin shacks – typically with out clear water – and dwell on filth roads, which end in a number of mud and dust. Many have power well being issues as effectively, like diabetes, coronary heart circumstances, weight problems and bronchial asthma.
The Clinic has come a good distance over the previous twenty years. Past offering pressing and preventive care to the neighborhood, we even have packages to interact households in wholesome consuming. As a part of these packages, households take part in neighborhood gardens and obtain dietary schooling. We distribute clear water and take our crew on outreach packages to hard-to-access areas to distribute drugs and conduct well being exams. We additionally present youngsters with uniforms, backpacks and dietary packs, which assist them keep in class.
Many children within the surrounding 15 Nicaraguan townships don’t go to high school previous the sixth grade, and a few don’t go in any respect. Younger individuals in Nicaragua are fortunate if they will get on a profession path that takes them past doing guide labor for little or no revenue.
But lately, because of beneficiant donors, not solely have we been capable of inspire and assist 61 children to remain in class, however we have now 48 in college, with 4 latest graduates!
There may be a lot want around the globe begging for our consideration and monetary assist. I’m pleading with you as we speak to not neglect what is going on within the Americas… in our personal backyards.
The Roberto Clemente Well being Clinic is a confirmed nonprofit that so many depend on to raised their lives and strengthen their very own native communities.
Our crew is aware of that each cent employed to function the Clinic comes from the generosity of donors. Our crew members really feel a deep sense of accountability to be there for his or her neighbors, as they’ve been by way of many crises… together with the pandemic.
I’m so happy with these skilled Nicaraguans and the neighborhood leaders who work carefully with the Clinic.
They actually deserve extra.
They desperately want funds instantly to enhance the Clinic’s dwelling base. It is a well-located, safe-haven facility that has stood the check of numerous storms and flooding, in addition to common put on and tear. The time has come for us to assist them repair and replace the Clinic facility – a spot of refuge, restoration, support and delight.
However a lot of work wants accomplished, and that prices some huge cash – particularly now that inflation has ravaged the economic system there.
Right this moment I’m asking you to assist save the Clinic’s “dwelling”… to raised somebody’s well being on this fantastic (but poor) area of the world. You possibly can assist so simply along with your donation.
By donating as we speak to our Roberto Clemente Well being Clinic, you’ll assist fund the repairs and renovations of the Clinic, in addition to the Clinic’s packages and personnel.
We’re seeking to increase not less than $20,000 to assist in Stage One in every of our constructing funding, and The Oxford Membership has graciously supplied to match donations as much as this quantity, with an identical deadline of December 31.
Let me offer you a couple of extra real-life examples of how our Clinic makes use of your contributions to have a direct and exponentially life-enhancing impression on households…
- Somewhat boy named Andy got here down with severe pneumonia. His household contacted the Clinic throughout the evening, distraught by his poor respiration. They dwell in a distant neighborhood on a notoriously dangerous street – made much more harmful due to the wet season. The household didn’t have their very own car. Our crew, in our emergency response car, was capable of get there by way of the mud, touring over 9 miles on this virtually impassable street. The crew was capable of stabilize him and get him to a hospital.
- Dave Fessler, my former colleague, was visiting Nicaragua. His life was saved after a severe browsing incident. He wrote me, “I’m most grateful for this small medical clinic within the southwest nook of Nicaragua. The Clinic’s emergency car transported me from the seashore to their facility. There, the workers administered intravenous fluids and different procedures according to a spinal wire damage. Have been it not for his or her fast actions and for them following correct protocols, I wouldn’t be capable of write you as we speak.”
Now that very same facility that helped stabilize Dave and put together him for a medevac is worn in and out want of dire restore, because the pictures on this letter present.
We’ve the plan and the price range; we simply badly want the funds. And as I’ve talked about, our annual price range is amazingly small for what this crew accomplishes.
However now it’s now not sufficient.
As our Dr. Norlan Villareal stated…
The restoration and growth of the infrastructure of The Roberto Clemente Well being Clinic is essential on condition that it offers us with better safety in opposition to pure disasters. It provides us safety to proceed offering medical care within the occasion of hurricanes and earthquakes, since we dwell in a area at excessive danger of floods, storms and earthquakes. Additionally it is necessary because it offers safety and areas for coexistence with sufferers. In occasions of rain and drought, sufferers typically have to attend in areas below a tent the place there is no such thing as a consolation or security.
Right here is one other particularly shifting instance, this one from Program Coordinator Enmanuel, of how donations are used and critically wanted to maintain our packages.
Renaldi Mora Peña is 7 years outdated. He lives within the Cuascoto neighborhood together with his mother and father. He has two brothers and one sister. He was born with congenital well being issues – power gastric reflux and brachial plexus palsy. He was included within the Padrino Program when he was a 1-year-old, and the Clinic has supported him together with his medical wants because of the assistance of a beneficiant donor. We’ve supplied vitality and high-quality medical consideration, in addition to academic and dietary assist by way of the years. Renaldi has improved his life. He’s a enjoyable and energetic little boy stuffed with desires. At present he’s in first grade in elementary college.
I hope you’ll take into account becoming a member of me in supporting the communities of this area of Nicaragua. They so badly need to have a more healthy life. And plenty of do, thanks to assist from The Roberto Clemente Well being Clinic.
An amazing quantity of change has occurred since we opened our doorways in 2004.
- Faculties are getting clear water.
- Youngsters are going to colleges once they beforehand couldn’t (as a result of they didn’t have uniforms, backpacks or sneakers).
- Medicines are attending to households who dwell in distant areas and usually can’t entry a clinic.
- Emergency providers can be found 24/7 in an space with no close by hospital.
- Households are studying the best way to develop their very own meals.
- Senior residents are studying the best way to handle their diabetes and coronary heart circumstances.
There may be way more we could possibly be doing, along with your assist. All our packages could be expanded to cowl extra households, and our constructing and tools could be upgraded, permitting us to supply higher pediatric and diagnostic care.
I’m asking you… please, on this giving season, with all the difficulty on this planet as we speak…
Please preserve this impoverished, fragile area so near us in your coronary heart and thoughts. Please take into account The Roberto Clemente Well being Clinic as considered one of your supported charities.
We’re a donor-supported 501(c)(3) integrated in Maryland, so your donation is 100% tax-deductible. We’ve grow to be an integral a part of why the individuals on this a part of Nicaragua proceed to attempt for a greater life.
I couldn’t be prouder of our Clinic crew. Our crew members deserve a greater facility and tools. So does our Nicaraguan neighborhood.
Thanks for taking the time to learn this replace on our Clinic. Your donations can be used effectively and professionally, going the place they’re wanted most. You can also make a optimistic and life-changing impression on this area proper now.
My greatest to you in these occasions,
Julia C. Guth
Chair of the Board
The Roberto Clemente Well being Clinic
www.nicaclinic.org
P.S. A reminder that the deadline to get your donation matched is December 31, 2023. The Oxford Membership is offering matching funds of as much as $20,000 for this giving season. Please donate quickly so your donation qualifies for this 100% match.