Grounds for Health Trip
Jinotega, Jinotega, Nicaragua
November 10-November 18, 2007

Thanks to the support of Café Imports and Grounds for Health, I was given the unique and wonderful opportunity to serve coffee producing women in the Jinotega region of Nicaragua this fall. Grounds for Health is an non-profit focused on providing health care to women of coffee growing communities in Central America. They aim specifically to detect and treat cervical cancer.

In November, I met up with a team of talented volunteers and spent five days at the Guillermo Matute Health Center in Jinotega examining as many women as we could fit in each day. Our team consisted of doctors, physicians’ assistants, registered nurses, pathologists, cytologists, laboratory professionals, and an up-for-anything, go-to-gal coffee lady, Yours Truly. When word got out that I worked for a coffee importer, it wasn’t long before I myself was receiving ‘walk-in visitors’ at the clinic. However, they weren’t from women seeking exams but rather local coffee farmers who were anxious to tell me their coffee story and see about exporting their coffee to us!

As this was Grounds’ first campaign in Jinotega, flexibility, expecting the unexpected, and rolling with the flow was imperative. When we arrived bright and early Monday morning and found an unanticipated gathering of 100 women from the community hoping to see a doctor, we had to think and work quickly as we already had 100 women on their way down from the mountain for their scheduled exams.

As the week progressed, we examined an average of 100 women each day and were thrilled to find that the new method of cervical cancer pre-screening that we were using was highly successful AND easily taught to the providers already serving at the clinic. We were also able to perform chryo-therapy treatment on those women who needed it, another method that the local providers easily caught on to and are now able to continue to practice at the clinic.

I spent a fair amount of time at the check-in/registration table in the front of the clinic greeting and registering the women who had arrived for their exam. For me, this was a joy. Speaking with many of these women face to face, learning their names, answering basic questions, helping to calm their nerves and truly, above all, sharing a big smile was such a personal and practical way to connect with and serve these women who work so hard to produce the world’s favorite beverage. I felt that it was finally my chance to give back to them for all they’ve given to so many of us.

One evening at dinner, I was fortunate enough to learn that the daughter of Angelina from Angelina Estate, worked near our site. By even better fortune, I happened to walk right by her office on my way to the clinic and found her inside. No sooner had I introduced myself when she warmly embraced me and fervently thanked me for everything we’d done for them. By six the next morning we were trucking our way up the mountain to Angelina Estate where breakfast and hot coffee, of course, awaited us and where I also met a few farm employees and friends. By foot we toured the forested paradise while taking in the miraculous beauty and freshness that accompany the rising sun of each new day. As we left the Estate, we stopped and greeted the students outside the school that was built with coffee proceeds. Their wide, toothy smiles and energetic waves good-bye were yet another reminder that I am definitely in one of the most exceptional industries around.

We had accomplished so much in such a short period of time; we had worked cohesively and positively as a team to examine nearly 500 women and had established a positive and functional relationship with the coffee coop and the local providers. Despite the fact that saying good-bye to all of the providers, coop employees, and the other volunteers was a bit dismal, we were able to depart very content, feeling confident in the skills and techniques that had been passed on to local providers to continue to meet the needs of local women. The chance to share in this campaign and represent Café Imports was truly a humbling gift of learning, growing, and serving and I am exceedingly grateful to have had the support and encouragement to pursue this rewarding opportunity.

For more information about Grounds for Health, please visit their website at www.groundsforhealth.org