Covid-19 Special Appeal 2020

With the generous support from our friends all over the world, we managed to raise £21,000 and donate essential PPE equipment to key hospitals in Colombia in Bogotá (Hospital Universitario Mederi), Cali (Hospital Universitario Mederi), La Dorada (ESE Salud Dorada Caldas), Ocaña (Hospital Emiro Quintero Cañizares) and Barrancabermeja (ESE Barrancabermeja) for all the medical staff working there tirelessly. These key institutions, located in areas of severe impact, are playing a key role in saving lives and FOCSA is very proud to have helped during these challenging times.
FOCSA also additionally donated £10,000 worth of essential PPE equipment various hospitals in Cauca (ESE Guapi), Chocó (Hospital San Francisco de Asis and Hospital Local Ismael Roldan Valencia of Quibdo) , Casanare (ESE Centro de Salud de Monterrey), Guajira (Hospital Nuestra Señora de los Remedios Riohacha, Hospital de San Juan del Cesar and Hospital San Jose de Maicao) and in Tolima (Hospital San Rafael ESE Dolores).

We are delighted to share with you that FOCSA donated 1,000 face masks to very vulnerable hospitals and foundations such as the Colsubsidio Clinic in Bogota that treats children with Leukemia!
Special Appeal 2018

The Fundación Cardioinfantil - Instituto de Cardiología (FCI-IC) - April 2019 - £56,789
The Fundación Cardioinfantil - Instituto de Cardiología (FCI-IC) is a not- for-profit organisation offers high quality medical attention to children and adults with very complex cardiovascular illnesses. Their mission is to treat all children, regardless of their parents’ income or social status, who require specialised medical interventions that are not always available in other health institutions in Colombia. Approximately 70% of the children treated come from lower income back- grounds.
The FCI, as a Fourth-tier hospital in the Colombian health service classification, receives many referrals of children whose pathologies cannot be treated elsewhere. At times, some of these children cannot be given the medical care that they urgently need as the FCI-IC does not have enough beds or specialised equipment. For this reason, they decided to create a new, Paediatric Intensive Care Unit to increase the number of children they help from 450 to 700, which means that they will also require additional equipment. FOCSA with your help donated two High frequency ventilators that have different specifications and serve different purposes allowing the hospital to currently look after 600 children per year approximately.
The clinical treatment is supported by educational, investigative and social responsibility programmes and is centred on the patient but also involves the family from the start. 3,760 children were admitted to the Paediatric Ward in 2017.
Special Appeal 2016


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.