Health delegation from Ometepe visits Bainbridge

At a welcoming ceremony at the Bainbridge Island Farmers Market, Mayor Anne Blair presents a key to the city to Dora Guitierrez, manager of the Sister Islands’ office on Ometepe.

Five delegates from Ometepe left Bainbridge Island on May 3 after a two-week visit, the first Sister Islands’ health delegation to travel north.

Four of the delegates are health-care providers on Ometepe—a doctor, a dentist and two nurses—and the fifth is the manager of the Sister Islands’ office on Ometepe.

The delegation visited the Kitsap County Health Department, a community clinic, and a mental health clinic. They also took a walking tour of Winslow, visited IslandWood and the Japanese Exclusion Memorial, toured Pike Place Market, and sampled other local highlights. Delegates also met with various committees of the Sister Islands Association.

The delegates’ travel expenses were paid through generous contributions to the Sister Islands’ Association through One Call for All, the big community fund-raising drive that takes place each fall.

Delegates included:

Dora Guitierrez Trana

Dora  has been the Sister Islands’ Office Manager since we opened our office in 1999. She first visited Bainbridge as an English teacher delegate in 1995. She still teaches English in Altagracia’s Secondary School. Dora has two children, Hendrickson (studying to become a doctor) and Kendra. She lives with her siblings and their families next door to our office in Altagracia.

Betania Lopez Flores

Betania has worked for 13 years as a clinical nurse in various health posts in the Altagracia municipality. She is married to a farmer and they have three children. She and her family live with her parents in Las Pilas (near Urbaite).

Francela Williams Aviles

Francela’s 18 years of clinical nursing have been centered in the hospital in Moyogalpa. Francela and her partner have three children and two grandchildren.  She lives with her parents in Los Angeles. (Betania  and Francella both received scholarships from BOSIA for their nursing studies.)

Ayser Flores Guitierrez

Ayser has served Altagracia as a dentist for 29 years. He and his wife have three grown children and one grandchild. Ayser is joined in his dental practice by his daughter who is also a dentist. Ayser and his wife live in Altagracia.

Pedro Jose Betarano

Pedro is a doctor in the Moyogalpa hospital and the clinic in La Flor. He has worked on Ometepe Island for 18 years but his family home is in Rivas where his wife works as a hospital x-ray technician. Pedro and his wife have three children. He has collaborated with BOSIA’s Health Committee on a number of projects over the years.