Recent Donations

Special Appeal 2016

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta - Completion in October 2016 - £24,000

 

 

The Arhuacos are a profoundly spiritual, peaceful people who value their independence and traditions. Approxima­tely 45,000 live in the Arhuaco Indigenous Reserve – between the Caribbean Sea and the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta. The Arhuacos live dispersed over a wide area, and practice a subsistence economy, working the land and making handicrafts. There are very few roads; some isolated places can only be reached by foot or on horseback. 

 

The WINTUKWA IPSI is the regional health institution which takes care of the primary medical needs of over 10,500 young children and 9,900 are women of reproductive age. On average they treat 1,150 children and 300 pregnant women per month. FOCSA has been asked to help because they are going through a difficult period due to climate change and other changes affecting their crops and water supplies. As a result there is hunger, malnutrition and illness, particularly in the most vulnerable groups of children, mothers and old people.

 

With your help, we have donated basic but essential medical equipment to the Nabusimake, Jewrwa and Simonorwa Health Centres. They have dedicated medical teams including doctors, nurses, bacteriologists and health promoters. While the infrastructure of the Health Centres is adequate, they lack even the most basic equipment required for diagnosis and primary care: Fetal Dopplers, Blood Pressure Monitors, Nebulizers and Vital Signs Monitors.  Now the Arhuacos receive care from a health centre closer to their villages, without the expense and risk of having to travel for several hours in hazardous conditions to the nearest city. 

 

3 Health Centres - Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta - October 2016 - £20,000

Hospital Universitario Troconis -  August 2016 - £5,000

We donated a specialised closed incubator for the neonatal intensive care unit. This is vital for the intensive care of critically ill babies and children suffering from diseases such as renal failure, convulsions, very low birth weight or respiratory complications. 

Special Appeal 2014

Hospital Universitario Rafael Henao Toro - Manizales - May 2015 - £33,000

Our Special Appeal for 2014 was targeted to help a hospital located in the Colombian Coffee Region. The "Hospitalito" is a crutial and important institution in the region for children of all ages.

 

We suceeded in raising £33,000 which were desperately needed to buy the surgical medical equipment for this inspiring and non-profit institution that offers secondary and tertiary care to children and teenagers in the coffee area, being the only entity with these facilities in the region. 

 

Among the equipment donated were 1 surgical ceiling lamp, 1 intubation lamp, 1 Fiberscope, 1 Dermatome and key surgical intruments they required.

Special Appeal 2013

Fundación Madre Bernarda Butler - Clinica la Asunción - Feb 2014 - £36,500

Our 2013 appeal, under the name of “Carnival of Hope” set out with a very ambitious target to raise enough funds to buy 1 transport incubator, 1 vital signs monitor and associated ventilator, 1 closed incubator and 2 phototherapy lamps for the paediatric ward and intensive care unit at Clinica La Asuncion, Barranquilla.

 

The clinic was in urgent need of special neonatal equipment provided by FOCSA which was necessary for the safe movement of babies between the labour and neonatal intensive care wards. With your help we were able to raise £36,500 to provide this important equipment which was delivered to the hospital in February this year.