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FIMRC is pleased to announce volunteer opportunities at our clinic site in Nicaragua!

Through a partnership with the Roberto Clemente Rancho Santana clinic, FIMRC’s Project Limon brings medical care to children living in remote areas of rural western Nicaragua. By placing volunteers to work alongside the doctors, nurses, and other medical staff in the clinic, FIMRC aims to improve pediatric care in the region and improve the lives of Nicaragua’s children.

The Roberto Clemente Rancho Santana clinic is located 20 miles from the city of Rivas in the Pacific lowlands region of Nicaragua. It was founded to serve the isolated villages of Rancho Santana and Limon. Rancho Santana is a popular coastal tourism and surfing destination known for its colonial heritage, beach communities, mountains and volcanoes. Directly outside the upscale resorts, however, are numerous impoverished communities which before the building of the clinic had no access to medical care. At present, the clinic provides free and low-cost medical care to the residents of Rancho Santana and Limon, as well as 41 surrounding communities in southwest Nicaragua.

As one of the poorest countries in the Americas, Nicaragua presents serious challenges related to health care. Nearly half of Nicaragua’s population live below the poverty line and nearly half lack sustained access to proper sanitation. Only 6.3% of Nicaragua’s population carries health insurance. As a result, child illness and mortality rates are high for the region, and preventable or treatable conditions such as respiratory diseases, diarrhea, and malnutrition make up the main causes of death for children under 5.

The clinic serves over 10,000 patients per year and has a staff of 9 which include a doctor, two nurses, pharmacists and administrative staff. The clinic currently provides primary care, emergency care and health education to children and adults. In partnership with the clinic, FIMRC aims to expand the program of free medical care for children while providing volunteer opportunities to serve the community alongside the medical staff.

The nature of the Nicaragua volunteer program will vary depending on the number of volunteers in each group, the seasonal timing of the mission, the length of the volunteer trip, respective proficiencies in Spanish, medical training, and the current needs of the community and the clinic. What FIMRC can guarantee, however, is that every volunteer mission will be culturally and socially enlightening. Each volunteer will have opportunities to examine Nicaragua’s systems of medical provision in numerous ways and hopefully learn about health care disparities and ways to address them.

Volunteers will have the opportunity to shadow the staff during examinations and procedures. The community outreach program is a major component of the service we provide to the patients and families, and volunteers will have the opportunity to leave a lasting impact through this program. Volunteers will host educational community discussions about a variety of general health topics. The opportunity also exists for interacting with children on both a group and one-on-one basis to teach them about basic hygiene and good health practices.

Volunteers will be staying at a local hotel a few minutes' bicycle ride from the clinic site.

Volunteers are responsible for booking their own flights. A FIMRC staff member or representative will provide airport pickup and dropoff transportation. FIMRC will also provide a bicycle to each volunteer for transportation within the town.

The costs of a one-week volunteer mission are as follows:
Program donation: $525/week
Housing and transportation: $400/week

Volunteers are responsible for purchasing their own airfare.

Our program in Nicaragua is ideal for individuals and groups of up to 16. If you are ready to find out more about FIMRC’s project in Nicaragua, or about our programs in El Salvador, Peru, Costa Rica, India, or Uganda, please visit http://fimrc.org/missions-new/volunteer-information-request-form. If you would like to speak to one of our team members, please contact Executive Vice President Sara Schoenleber at missions@fimrc.org or 1.888.211.8575. We look forward to hearing from you!