Nicaraguan women’s shelter receives heart monitors

Patty Achey Cutts has been a strong supporter of the women’s shelter in Chinandega, Nicaragua since her first visit there several years ago. Among other things, she has organized groups of women at her church and in her PEO chapter to sew hundreds of cloth diapers every year.

But she and others were frustrated that Rotary’s foundation was unable to provide financial support for other needs because there was no club in northern Nicaragua willing to step in and help. So when the need for a fetal heart monitor was explained to her, and when Rotary couldn’t help, she turned to Episcopal Relief and Development for money to buy the monitor.

The Refuge Belin Pregnant Women's Shelter in Chinandega helps over a thousand women every year in the final days of their pregnancy and a good heart monitor is considered an essential diagnostic tool for knowing when to send young mothers to the maternity hospital.

It's one more way we’re helping residents of this very poor part of the world deal with women’s and children’s health issues and an example of how some of us are knocking down barriers to getting the job done.