"He died so that thousands of others could be saved," they said.
As hundreds of patients arrived daily at Nicaragua's area hospitals, what had begun with the death of one teenage boy in the small rural community of El Ojoche was quickly becoming a regional crisis. Public health officials already worn ragged by the massive recovery efforts in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region made necessary by Hurricane Felix in September found themselves frantically trying to manage yet another disaster.
The persistent rainfall that flooded the Pacific region following the hurricane had created ideal conditions for many kinds of bacteria found in animal droppings to spread throughout the soil, including the potentially deadly leptospirosis, which took only two weeks to kill 10 people and affect more than 3,790 others.
Following several visits to local hospitals by FH staff and community leaders, a flurry of conference calls and coordination with the Ministry of Health, medicine was secured for the affected individuals, many of whom traveled long distances from their families to receive medical attention.
In El Ojoche, 39 people as well as a majority of the farm animals were diagnosed with leptospirosis, and with the added crisis of losing their year's harvest in an unexpected tornado that week, the community's suffering became even more acute. "It's like we're reliving the seven plagues," one woman commented shortly afterwards.
Community health worker Herbert Reyes shared, "There is so much pain and need on the part of the people in El Ojoche. I have just been weeping for them."
In addition to the much-needed medicine for the hospitals, Food for the Hungry provided food for the 85 families of El Ojoche, and Oxitertraciclina to treat cows, horses, and pigs affected by leptospirosis in the community. With the support of FH/Nicaragua Agricultural Advisor Mike Saeli and his wife, Maria, a trained nurse, and Teams Coordinator Andrea Kamouyerou, the local CHE (Community Health Evangelism) committee in El Ojoche met and organized a community wide animal treatment campaign.
By going house to house, the committee was able to treat more than 142 animals (horses, cows, and some pigs) within 24 hours with the antibiotic; with future funds, injections will be given to the remainder of the pigs as well.
Andrea Kamouyerou noted that, "When we arrived, the CHE community leaders seemed overwhelmed with the problems they faced. But once they started to organize, and do something, their spirits began to lift."
Public health officials who visited the community shortly following the outbreak praised the community's cleanliness and leadership, noting that the disease might have spread much more rapidly in a less well organized community. Food for the Hungry has been supporting the CHE strategy in El Ojoche for the last 5 years, during which child mortality rates and incidence of diarrhea and parasites in children had dropped substantially.
Community leaders continue to look for alternative food sources and income to address the shortfall that will exist until the next planting season in May 2008. Some potential projects leaders have proposed include involvement in a family garden program, installing dams along the creek that runs through the community for water storage and irrigation, and receiving training in agricultural diversification in order to ensure food security throughout the year.
By choosing determination over despair, and using their creativity to bring order from chaos, these CHE leaders vividly illustrate how the greatest resource in any community is its people. People who are bearers of Christ's hope for their neighbors, and the nation.
