Jinotega, Nicaragua

Trips to Jinotega provide service to a population that lacks adequate healthcare and financial resources. NU-AID works with Casa Materna, a Nicaraguan NGO, to plan and setup worksites in Jinotega. Casa Materna scouts sites that are most-lacking in healthcare and notifies community leaders and patients about our visits. In order to achieve our goal of providing continuity of care to the local population, we plan to continue our annual trips to Jinotega, and strengthen our relationships with local physicians and Casa Materna. In addition, we are in the process of analyzing information gathered from surveys and patient notes taken in Jinotega to identify the most important local health issues and to better plan our medical supply kits for future trips.

Jinotega is the central town in the Jinotega District, just north of Matagalpa and south of the border with Honduras. Aptly called "the city of mists," Jinotega is a mountainous area of cloud forests and coffee plantations. Most of the 30,000 people who live in Jinotega are employed in agriculture at a level of bare subsistence. Like Matagalpa to its south, Jinotega has received little help with development or infrastructure from the major cities in the Southwest.