The Hearts Afire Foundation is a non-profit organization, which provides medical and education support to the people and community of Merced’s sister-city, Somoto, Nicaragua.

In 2003, my husband and I visited Somoto for a three month period of time. The primary purpose of the trip was for my husband, a urologic surgeon, to volunteer his services and practice urology in the community. With us we took our 13 yr. and 23 yr. old sons and also three other young men close to our family. The secondary purpose of our trip was to assess the community’s needs. Having done so we could engage the people of Merced to begin to work with us addressing those needs. We returned to Merced with a long list of desperately needed projects and since then, we have successfully accomplished a great deal. Here are but a few of our ongoing projects:

• We constructed the Los Pipitos Center for Handicapped Children, which serves almost 400 children. We provide the salaries for the doctor and physical therapist, provide the medicine for the all of the children and financially contribute to their daily operating budget.
• We have given full educational scholarships to almost 70 students who are selected by a committee of five professionals in Somoto. We support these students until they obtain their degrees and start their career programs.
• We currently provide food to the seven Casa Maternas in the district of Madriz, where women live during their last weeks of pregnancy. In these houses the women are cared for by a doctor and a nurse. The babies are delivered under their care and the mother and child stay for an additional week. Under this system, maternal and infant mortality has been significantly reduced.
• We have an English School where 24 high school students study English and over the 4 years learn to speak the language, this enhancing their chances for employment.
• We run a dental clinic which provides dental care to those unable to afford such care.
• We run a boxing class, and support multiple youth sport activities.
• We have supplied Somoto’s district hospital with millions of doses of basic medications and we have funded construction projects at the hospital to improve its delivery of medical care. We have also provided significant amounts of equipment such as operating room lights, EKG machines, incubators, anesthesia machines, radiology equipment and much, much more.

Annually or semi-annually, we return to Somoto with a group of approximately 20 people, for a 7-10 day period. While there, we reassess our past projects and investigate the future needs of the community and its people. Many of our people are medical professionals who volunteer their services to the medical community.

We have been blessed to have so many people who believe in our cause and have generously contributed to our organization. Without them none of our projects would be possible.

Since we pay no salaries or administrative fees, 100% of every dollar benefits our work in Somoto! We are a 100% efficient charity organization.

Somoto (meaning The Valley of Geese) is a town located in the hills of northern Nicaragua around 20 km south-west of Ocotal, and is in the department of Madriz. It was founded as a town in 1867, and since 1936, has been the capital of Madriz. Somoto is also home to the Somoto Canyon, a relatively big tourist attraction in Nicaragua. Somoto has a total population of approximately 40,000 with 15,000 people living in the urban area and 25,000 in 48 nearby communities. The distance between Merced, Ca. and Somoto is approximately 3284 miles.