Yael's Report on healthcare services in Nicaragua

08.05.09, Posted by Andy Mayo

Yael Velleman's research in Nicagarua has been completed and is presented here for the first time.

Yael was asked by HoverAid to research the needs of the communities along the East Coast of Nicaragua, and in particular tolook at the barriers to accessing healthcare services, and difference a hovercraft might make.

The report considers Geographical, Cultural, Gender based, Economic, and Political barriers, and the interactions between them, and there are some interesting conclusions.

The communities along the east coast live in isolated areas, however attempts have been made in the past to establish health services.

"The physical availability of healthcare services in the region is variable; access to hospital care is problematic anywhere outside of Bluefileds...The distance from services is clearly a factor in the care-seeking decision-making process, since care seekers must consider not only their physical ability to travel but also the economic and time opportunity costs of the journey to the health centre. This inevitably leads to delays in essential medical care, with serious consequences for patients welfare"

However simply providing quicker and safer access, by boat in the deeper lagoons, and by hovercraft along the rapid strewn rivers won'tprovide the complete solution...

Yael concludes:

"Far beyond issues of physical and geographic access, this investigation has clearly shown that access to healthcare services is far more complex than simply the ability of people to reach a health unit, or of healthcare personnel to reach them; if attention is not given to the quality and affordability of care, as well as to its cultural, ethnic and gender accessablilty, increasing the physical access of the RAAS population to healthcare services will not necessarily improve its health, and consequently its general welfare."

We are really grateful to Yael for all her hard work - we now know that whilst Hovercraft may have a role to play in the future of Nicaragua's East Coast in the future, there are important priorities to address first which we can do best by encouraging and supporting local and international organisations working together with the local communities.

11.03.08, Posted by Andy Mayo

Yael Velleman will be working with HoverAid as part of our new Hovercare Nicaragua project. Yael has lived in and researched the communities of the eastern Caribbean coastal regions of Nicaragua over several years, and is returning there in March to investigate one of the major problems facing those communities - effective access to healthcare.

The 1995 British Hovercraft Expedition to Nicaragua gave a tantalising glimpse of the way that the river systems of the Atlantic Autonomous Regions of Eastern Nicaragua could be used as effective transport routes - and lead to Squadron Leader Mike Cole, the expedition leader, setting up the Peace and Hope Trust, creating a real link between churches in the UK and USA and impoverished communities in Nicaragua.

Yael, along with two other Peace and Hope volunteers, Steve Hubbard, and Tony Pitt, decided to investigate Mike's original vision of using hovercraft to address issues of poverty in Nicaragua. With HoverAid's background in using hovercraft to enable NGO's to tackle issues of poverty, and the fact that River Rover 501 (now in Madagascar) was involved inthe 1995 Nicaragua expedition, it was obvious we should join forces.

The first stage of this is to undertake thorough research of the root causes of poverty in the autonomous regions. One of these root causes is evidently associated with healthcare options, and we want to determine to what extent access to improved transport, either for communities, or health care providers, could improve the situation. We also want to find out what those communities see as their priorities.

Poverty has many causes, and lack of access to markets, representation, government services, finance, and jobs are just some of the causes - the reason we are investigating barriers to access to healthcare is that all of these other issues can play a part - and all may be affected by difficulties in simply from one place to another.

To support Yael, and the HoverAid Hovercare-Nicaragua project you can send a donation here.