by Kim Gazella

Sometimes, dreams really do come true! For the community of El Bejuco in Nicaragua, a magnificent, long-awaited dream came true with the official opening of its new health clinic June 26.

Working through the Alliance of Baptists’ international partner organization AMOS Health and Hope, a 15-member delegation from Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C., had broken ground for the clinic more than a year ago with the financial support of Pullen and many individual contributions. 

Three members of that delegation — Jonathan Sledge, Philip Letsinger and Kim Gazella — plus AMOS staff and hundreds of El Bejuco (Bay-hoo-koh) men, women, children and babies turned out for the celebration, which included songs, speeches, sermons, a ribbon-cutting, food and a piñata with treats for the kids.

Jonathan, who along with his wife, Dr. Deb Norton, led the Pullen delegation in May 2008, thanked the community for its support, and commended the residents for their hard work in reaching the goal.

“Before we came here, there were many hours, days, and months of organizing and planning in your community and with your health committee,” he said. “And before that, there were many months and years of planning and training with the AMOS staff.  But perhaps most importantly, there was first the hope and the desire and the determination of each of you that you could have better access to basic health care.”

The Alliance is giving $5,000 to AMOS through the 2009 Bridges of Hope Mission Offering, which will allow AMOS to hire someone to inventory and distribute medications correctly.

AMOS Health and Hope, a nonprofit faith-based organization with headquarters in Managua, stands for A Ministry of Sharing, and also is named after the Biblical prophet Amos because of his passion for social justice and sensitivity to the poor.

Headed by medical doctors Laura and David Parajón, AMOS works with communities to identify their health and education needs and build upon their strengths. AMOS has several programs designed to improve health care in rural areas, including disaster relief after hurricanes or earthquakes, de-worming initiatives, school-based health care, and patient assistance to help people with medicines, tests and clinic visits that they cannot afford on their own. The organization also recruits volunteer teams like Pullen’s to help construct health clinics, schools and other much-needed advances such as latrines.

A significant outreach effort is the recruiting and training of community health promoters to provide basic health care and disease prevention closer to home. In El Bejuco, a rural community in the Boaco region about a three-hour drive northeast of Managua, the health provider is Zabdi Coronado, whose mother, Marta, has served as the village midwife for decades.

During the dedication, Marta and Zabdi reminded the community members of their responsibility to make good use of this clinic so they can be healthier, and also to take good care of it. The clinic will improve their lives dramatically because many deaths are caused by treatable conditions such as malnutrition, diarrhea and pneumonia. In Nicaragua’s rural areas, 68 percent of people live on less than $2 per day, and pregnant women or those carrying children often have to walk three hours or more to reach government health centers.

The positive news is that basic health care and disease prevention can be delivered for $20 per person annually, and children can be de-wormed for five cents per pill (at least 50 percent of Nicaraguan school children suffer from intestinal parasites), making the AMOS programs extremely valuable and cost effective resources.

While much work remains, the opening of a new health clinic is a monumental step toward healthier generations of Nicaraguans. Jonathan acknowledged this important step towards a healthier community as he presented two gifts for the clinic: a photograph of the Pullen pilgrims and the community, taken last year as work got underway, and a vase of white flowers to honor a dream that Dona Marta had one night of a branch of white flowers falling from the sky as the plane carrying the Pullen pilgrims departed.

“We know that we have made a big difference in your lives, but we want you to know that you have made a big difference in our lives as well,” Jonathan said. “You opened your arms, you opened your hearts, you opened your homes to welcome us into this place, and for that we are eternally grateful. You will always have a place in our hearts.”

Note: Additional Pullen delegation members in May 2008 were Juanita Clemmons, Jock Gault, John Goyer, Kyle Hampton, Beverly Hester, Pat Hielscher, Mike Levi, Sam Stone, Cathy Tamsberg, Brooks Wicker and Tom Winton. For more information about Pullen’s mission effort, contact Jonathan Sledge at 919-828-0721 or e-mail him at jonathansledge@earthlink.net. For more information about AMOS, contact Laura Parajón at dalparajon@gmail.com or visit  www.amoshealthandhope.org.