New Ambulance Delivered in Nicaragua

“The municipality is large, transportation is difficult and the closest hospital is quite far away. The ambulance will therefore be of good use,” says Gerður Gestsdóttir, ICEIDA’s Project Manager for social projects in Nicaragua. Gerður recently handed over a new ambulance to the president of the Red Cross in the town of Camoapa on the behalf of ICEIDA.

“Guatalupe Calero, the president of the Red Cross in Camoapa has fought for fifteen years to get an ambulance to the municipality,” says Gerður. “The residents have supported him in this fight so it was a joyous day in Camoapa when they received a brand new Land Rover ambulance, a 2008 model.”

According to Gerður, the need for an ambulance in this area is apparent. She says that as an example, the ambulance had to be used twice for transportation the same day as it was delivered. Gerður says that in addition to be of great use to the residents of the municipality, the ambulance will be beneficial to the women in the maternal house which is run by the Red Cross and of which ICEIDA funded the construction. There are women from the rural areas who have risky pregnancies and they often need to be transported quickly to a health centre or a hospital.

The residents of Camoapa are about forty thousand. The unemployment rate there is the highest in Nicaragua, 52%.