Grounds for Health Trip to Nicargua

Yesterday all the 5 volunteers 4 of them gringas arrived in Nicargua to begin our work with Grounds for Health
We are
Jeanne from Joisey a nurse midwife who has done the gamet from home birthing to now working in a womens health clinic
Sarah from Vermont currently residing in Cambridge who just finished a stint with the WHO/Harvard med school in improving utilization of pharmaceuticals in developing countries
Eve a new yawker now a long time resident of San Francisco an ob/gyn at Kaiser Oakland
Laura from Albequerque a physicians assistant, former Nicarguan peace corp volunteer in the 70s, who works with pediatric/adolescent sexual abuse survivors and does migrant health work per diem in northern california
and lastly
Yvette an ob/gyn hails from new yawk, of puertorican descent now practices in coneckticut and a veteran volunteer/trainer at Grounds for Health. Her 6th trip!!!

Our grounds for health staff from Vermont include
August who cowrote Where Women Have No Doctor and the executive director of GFH
Martha who is the project manager extraordinaire for all the Latin American sites


Grounds for health provides cervical screening and treatment to women
Their mission is to bring effective cervical cancer screening and treatment to women in coffee-growing communities. They currently work in Mexico, Central America and Tanzania. They use an innovative, affordable and community-appropriate method called the Single Visit Screen & Treat Approach, which has been endorsed by the World Health Organization.

Their work is made possible through partnerships with local coffee co-operatives, national and regional ministries of health, and specialty coffee companies. These partnerships have made it possible for them to bring better and sustainable health care to women in coffee-growing communities. For more details see www.groundsforhealth.org

Today we met the other providers which included 10 Nicaraguan nurses and doctors. The training took place at the coffee cooperative. It was fun, well organized, and intense. We were served about 3 cups of good coffee throughout the day and were wired and ready to go. The training included learning how to do visual inspection of the cervix and reviewed how to do a pelvic exam in a respectful manner. We will have 3 days of training followed by 4 days of seeing patients. We'll see over 400 patients whewww thats a lot of vag jay jays!!!

Our group