February 12, 2012
Huffington Post
By FILADELFO ALEMAN and MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN

CHICHIGALPA, Nicaragua — Jesus Ignacio Flores started working when he was 16, laboring long hours on construction sites and in the fields of his country’s biggest sugar plantation.

Three years ago his kidneys started to fail and flooded his body with toxins. He became too weak to work, wracked by cramps, headaches and vomiting.

On Jan. 19 he died on the porch of his house. He was 51. His withered body was dressed by his weeping wife, embraced a final time, then carried in the bed of a pickup truck to a grave on the edge of Chichigalpa, a town in Nicaragua’s sugar-growing heartland, where studies have found more than one in four men showing symptoms of chronic kidney disease.

A mysterious epidemic is devastating the Pacific coast of Central America….read the entire article

February 17, 2012
Press Republican
Susan Moore, News Editor

PLATTSBURGH — A public school sprang up in North Country Mission of Hope’s backyard in Nicaragua a few years ago — in a derelict strip motel.

When the Plattsburgh-based humanitarian group kicks off its 44th effort in Nicaragua this week, volunteers will work to make the place safer and more functional for the 900 or so students crammed in the structure.

“It’s in very bad shape,” said Mission of Hope Leadership Team Vice President Bill Murray, who visited the place during a mini-mission in January. “No lighting, no locks on the doors, the ceiling is asbestos.”

Read the whole article

Plattsburgh, NY
February 10, 2012

The Mission of Hope and the two Nicaraguan Medical students who are visiting the U.S. are featured in a front page news article in the Plattsburgh Press Republican.

From the Press Republican:

“Two of Nicaragua’s bright young minds have traveled to the North Country to study this region’s health care.

Carlos Mendieta and Alexis Narvaez, both 20, have toured area doctor’s offices and CVPH Medical Center, an opportunity made available through a relationship between Nicaraguan health-care providers and North Country Mission of Hope.

Read the entire article at: Press Republican – Nicaraguan Students tour North Country Health Facilities

The Mission of Hope would like to give a special word of thanks to Dr. Roger Patnode who networked with Dr. Clara Gonzalez in Nicaragua and especially to Dr. Kathleen Camelo and Karen Case, two local medical professionals (and Mission of Hope volunteers) who spearheaded this effort! This is an opportunity for highly talented medical folks to return to their own country at the end of their experience and give back to their own. As many of you know, this is a major justice issue, since unfortunately for the very very poor, the best of medical in poor countries, often come to US and stay….and thus, their own people never benefit directly.

In this joint effort, these young men will return to their own country and assist in our Mission clinic as well as in other locations.