Please take a look at the news from Surgeons of Hope:

June 3rd

The news of today about the help to Nicaragua after the severe earthquake that damaged almost 2500 houses and two of the Niched hospitals, is that most of the equipment is removed from hospitals Velez Paiz in Managua and Mauricio Abdalah in Chinandega to overcome any damage to the equipment. By the end of this week, two experts (Reggy Braun from NICHED and Andreas Bichlapp from DXR in Hamburg) will travel to Nicaragua for a two weeks job to de-install the delicate Bucky systems and hopefully build them up again in other hospitals. All patients from both hospitals have been transferred to surrounding hospitals and also the medical staff moved with them. For that reason most of the donated Niched equipment moved to the same locations.

The fund raising that we started after the news about the earthquakes was very successful. Within a few days we received donations from the City of Eindhoven (sister community of Chinandega) and company IDB who donated a lot in the past. Moreover private donations brought a significant amount as well. All together a fantastic reaction from our sponsors that helps us to guarantee the life support to the people of Nicaragua who need it most.

April 25th

Please take a look at the report prepared by Luis Vanegas with regards to the earthquakes in Nicaragua this April.

On the first day (Thursday April 10th), an earthquake of 6.2 on the seismic magnitude scale occurred. The next day, an ever stronger earthquake happened with a magnitude of 6.6. The aftershocks lasted for more than 10 days reaching the 5.6 grade in the scale.

Schools and government institutions’activities were suspended in Managua and León. A total of 2354 houses were damaged in Managua, León, Granada, Carazo, Madriz and Boaco. One person died and 37 were injured.

URGENT

[Message from Willem Vuisting, chairman and president]

Last night  we received an urgent request from the Min. of Health of Nicaragua, via our Niched representation, for help  to safeguard our  donated equipment from getting damaged, during the earthquake of the last few days. In particular help is required to  de-installl, and properly package and transport and store these systems. Obviously the government recognizes the value of these diagnostic systems , and wants to dismantle the systems preemptively . But they don’t have enough skilled capacity to do this.

The  immediate action concerns two of the  old hospitals  in Managua ( Velez Paiz) and Maurizio Abdalah in Chinandega from which evacuation of patients has already started yesterday. The urgent request concerns at minimum to send two expert engineers to Nicaragua as soon as possible to help out our local dealer Rivas Opstaele  to start dismantling and packing.

For this we are in urgent need of additional  funds to pay for travel expenses, tickets, material, tools etc.

I have never asked for financial support before but this is an EMERGENCY and every penny will help and to safeguard to continue to help people  in Nicaragua to get the medical care they deserve.  I will make sure that  every cent will be used only for the purpose of this emergency call.

If you do feel that you want to contribute, please do and use the Niched bank account number:

NL23ABNA0404765335 and mention ” Earthquake “.

Thank you for your support!  We will keep you posted

With the installation of two complete PACS networks and the upgrade to the latest level of three others, the NICHED team has recently finished its project “Going Digital”. Five major hospitals in Nicaragua have digital x-ray now.

Please read the report prepared by Martien van Overeem: The NICHED dream that came true

To hand over all the donated equipment of the last months and to celebrate the finalization of the installation of the PACS networks in five different hospitals, an official event was organized by Minsa (Ministry of Health, Nicaragua) that took place in Managua in Hospital Velez Paiz and for which the other hospital directors were invited. Also journalists from different newspapers, radio and television were present to report on the inauguration of the new donations (Check News).

From Minsa’s side, Lic. Napoleon Ortega was present and in the speech he expressed the great gratitude towards Philips Healthcare in the Netherlands and Germany, to Niched and all the people and organizations that donated money to make this possible.

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Ing. Lester Chavarria, guardian angel for Hospital España, has become IT Specialist for all three hospitals, España, Mauricio Abdalah and José Schendel. He is now guardian angel of all donated IT systems and Digital Reader and PACS solutions.

He has not only showed his excellent knowledge of diagnostic equipment in particular concerning IT issues, but his positive attitude and commitment to make things happen no matter what time of day or evening.

Niched is offering Lester English courses to improve his communication skills in English.

Check out the recent activities carried out at Nicaragua’s hospitals:

• EODRA
• Velez Pais
• España
• José Schendel
• Raymundo García New hospital!
• Mauricio Abdalah
• Lenin Fonseca

Hospital Vélez Paiz receives donation of modern 3D ultrasound devices and digital X-ray machines. Check out the news in el19digital, TN8 and RadioNicaragua! (in spanish).
For translation in English: TN8 and RadioNicaragua.

Hospital Fernando Vélez Paiz recibe donación de modernos ultrasonidos en 3D y rayos X digitalizados. Lea los artículos en el19digital, TN8 y RadioNicaragua!

Philips co-workers from the factory of Philips Healthcare in Hamburg Germany donated during their Christmas celebration in December a nice contribution for the work of the Niched Foundation in Nicaragua.

Niched is very grateful for this gift!