DR. EVELYN ABRAMS MAUSS ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PROJECT
A valued supporter of our project Dr. Evelyn Abrams Mauss died at the age of 86 while distributing leaflets for the first pre-Iraq peace demonstration in New York. Many of us traveled with her to Tipitapa, Nicaragua, and never met a more energetic person! She was an extraordinary being—one of the first women Ph.D.s from Johns Hopkins University, she published an article about childhood lead poisoning in the community just outside Tipitapa. She followed up with that study to change the practices of a battery factory that was poisoning children.
Soon after her death, her husband discussed the possibility of an environmental health project using the model of health promoters—brigadistas, who are community volunteers that teach and educate their communities about conditions in the environment, public health prevention methods, use of the botiquines which are community medicine boxes, and implement programs in their community. We submitted a proposal to the United Nations One Percent Fund, and combined with funds raised by the Mauss family, this project began training approximately 50 women and youth to provide public health education and promotion in the communities of Quebrada Honda, San Benito Agrícola, and Orontes Centeno.
Today, there are hundreds of volunteer brigadistas on the ground in Tipitapa that reach out to remote rural communities and new settlements. They continue to teach and educate communities about prevention, health education, and engage in the participation of the population for better health practices.