Born to serve: The story of a brigade member who gives without measure
Mayra Herrera, the passion for saving lives in Nicaragua.
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Mayra Herrera was born to save lives. With almost 30 years as a volunteer health brigade member, she faced the pandemic guided by her calling to serve and a close relationship with her community, opening the doors that fear closed to the health system in the darkest days.
Her eyes do not waver, they stare deeply without blinking. She speaks softly, very calmly, with a rock-solid confidence. Mayra Herrera was born in the city of Sébaco, Matagalpa department, on February 14, 1965. Back then, this city, which is currently home to about 38,000 people and is an agricultural center with large rice and vegetable plantations, was a small farming village at a crossroads between the Pan-American Highway and the road leading to the north-central zone of Nicaragua. Mayra felt the call to serve early in life and decided to become the volunteer health brigade member to whom doors are now wide open thanks to her work during the pandemic.
Life taught her the art of communication, and when she turned 29, already married to Juan Francisco Loáisiga, she became aware of her desire to serve.
“I would see that there were few doctors and few nurses, and that people sometimes got sick and there was no one to help them, so I thought I could become a volunteer health brigade member and help my neighbors,” Mayra recalls.
Her routine work is to follow up on pregnant women, check the weight of newborns, and promote vaccination days, as well as support her community’s health center in carrying out censuses for public health initiatives. “For me, being a health brigade member means to have love and determination to work for society,” she says.
A normal day
Mayra’s day begins at five in the morning. The sun has not yet peeked over the hills bordering Barrio Nuevo when Mayra has already taken a bath, lit the firewood stove and prepared coffee for her two children, her husband, and her father. Mileydis (24) is an English teacher, and Yalmar (19) is an auto mechanic. Her husband Juan Francisco (59) works at night as a security guard. After saying goodbye to her children who leave early for work, Mayra takes care of her father, Francisco (90): she bathes, dresses, and feeds him, and then cleans the house, does the laundry and other household chores.
After that, Mayra puts in her bag the tools she uses as a volunteer health brigade member: a lined notebook, a pen, and several booklets with information on hygiene habits and prevention tips for the most common diseases in her town. She says goodbye to don Francisco and walks about half a kilometer to the health center in the adjacent San Pedro neighbourhood.
Along the way she is greeted by children returning from school, cab drivers, street vendors, and neighbors. Everyone knows her name and she responds in kind. At the health center she is greeted by the director, Maryuri Sevilla (37). “Mayra is more than part of the health staff. Her contribution has been crucial, she is our main channel of communication with the population,” says Doctor Sevilla.
Courage under fire
At the height of the pandemic and despite the overwhelming reality, Mayra never hesitated to stay on the frontline. She had fears and doubts, like everybody else, but her will to be of service to her community and her country was the encouragement to endure.
“I told my family that it was time to stand firm in my work as a volunteer, because everyone’s life was in danger,” she recounts.
Everyone in Mayra’s family was alert. “I was worried that she might get sick, but deep down I always knew that she is a brave, caring woman, so my children and I decided to support her and encourage her,” says Juan Francisco. Mayra doubled the hours she dedicated to her volunteer work during the pandemic. “She would always get up at dawn and do all the household chores, and then work late into the evening visiting neighbors. She would arrive exhausted every night,” her husband adds. That went on for months.
When vaccination began in the first quarter of 2021, Mayra went house to house to identify the most vulnerable patients in order to give them priority. Misinformation and fear led many families to avoid vaccination. “Some of them told me to get vaccinated myself first, to make sure the vaccine didn’t kill. Once I had my vaccination card, I went back to those families to show them they could trust it,” she recalls. Days later, even the most skeptical people came to the vaccination posts.
As of July 2022, the date on which the latest Ministry of Health records were released, 87 per cent of the Nicaraguan population over two years of age has received at least one vaccine dose. In Matagalpa, official data indicate that 100 per cent of people eligible completed their vaccination schedule with two doses. UNICEF, through the COVAX mechanism, contributed to channel over a million COVID-19 pediatric vaccines donated by the US government, and also provided equipment to help strengthen the cold chain ensuring the arrival of the vaccines in optimal conditions to every corner of Nicaragua.
Volunteer health brigade members are a key link in the Family and Community Health Model, an official Nicaraguan plan supported by UNICEF. Dr. María Delia Espinoza, an early childhood survival and development specialist at UNICEF Nicaragua, recognizes that “the support of volunteer brigade members like Mayra was key in making Nicaragua move from the bottom of the list in terms of COVID-19 immunization, since it started vaccinating late, to the number one position” in the region. The volunteers, says Espinoza, “are the health staff’s right hand” at the rural and semi-urban level, where vaccination lagged furthest behind.
In the department of Matagalpa alone there are some 8,000 brigade members, according to official records. In the municipality of Sébaco, Mayra is one of 330 volunteers. During the months of greatest contagion, her contribution was vital for the promotion of prevention measures, at a time when health staff members were not enough and were seen as possible agents of contagion. “Mayra, who knows every family, was our spearhead. She approached these families with more confidence and persuaded them,” says Doctor Sevilla.
An Angel
Insistence was Mayra’s motto during those days of distrust and uncertainty. Even to her, most of the families spoke from the other side of the door or the gate.
One case that left its mark on her forever was that of Heriberto Martínez (60), now retired. Diabetes and high blood pressure made him a high-risk patient when in June 2021 he was infected with COVID-19. In a matter of days his blood oxygen level dropped to 64 per cent.
“I felt like I was dying. When Doña Mayra came and reported my case, the ambulance arrived after a couple of hours. I fainted upon arriving at the hospital,” Heriberto recalls with astonishment. “She was like an angel for me; if she hadn’t come at that moment and warned the health post, I would possibly be dead,” he says, as he holds Mayra’s hand, who a year later is still visiting him to check on his health condition..
In 2023, Mayra celebrates 30 years as a volunteer health brigade member. “My desire is to continue serving my community until God gives me the strength to do so,” she says with a smile.
Health Coverage in Sébaco
Sébaco has a health center that treats more complex cases, 15 community health posts like the one in San Pedro, where Mayra volunteers, and 30 base houses, which operate as neighbourhood clinics where a doctor or nurse comes once or twice a week to provide routine visits to the residents of the area. These health centers serve 23 areas (neighbourhoods, rural communities, villages) and are supported by 330 members of the community network of which Mayra forms part.
According to the Ministry of Health, there are four physicians, four nurses and six assistants for every 10,000 inhabitants.