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Costa Rican Lottery donates more than $400,000 to buy ambulances for Red Cross
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Social Protection Board, an organization that manages the lottery in Costa Rica, donated $447,650 to the Red Cross for the purchase of eleven ambulances.
According to the Board, the donation was raised from lottery sales.
"People who play the lottery are also helping institutions such as the Red Cross, or any of the other 500 nonprofit organizations that benefit from the Social Protection Board," said Esmeralda Britton, president of the Board.
According to the Red Cross, these new ambulances have an eco-friendly certification issued by the United Nations, for non-polluting vehicles.
"These 11 new ambulances will support our humanitarian work in different communities of the country," said Idalberto González, general manager of the Red Cross.
The ambulances are in the the communities of Orotina, San Pedro, Poas, Cañas, Miramar, Abangares, Liberia, Agua Buena, Buenos Aires, Aguas Zarcas, and Río Cuarto.
According to the Board, during 2018, the profits from lottery sales were $65,009,000. "The earnings from the lottery and other games, were used in donations to benefit more than 500 organizations in different social programs, such as child protection, people with disabilities, older adults, and health organizations among others," said the Board in its statement.
On April, as A.M. Costa Rica reported, the 20-30 Active Club donated an ambulance for the
transport of newborns that was valued on $243,435 to the Adolfo Carit Hospital*, known
as the women's hospital.
Active 20-30 is an international service club
focused on helping children and developing
leadership skills in younger adults ages 20-39. In
the United States and Canada, the organization is
called the Active 20-30 Club and has over 50 local
chapters.
In Costa Rica, the group is called Active 20-30. The
Active 20-30 Club is also a member of a global group
called the WOCO Foundation. In Costa Rica in 2018 it
collected about $888,777.
According to Social Security, the ambulance has
state-of-the-art equipment to transport - safely and
with the maximum care required by their health
condition - newborns who have critical illnesses,
mainly premature babies.
Social Security statistics reports the
national indicator of infant mortality is 7.92 per
thousand live births. In addition, the average
number of children born prematurely is 42 percent.
The average weight of children born prematurely is
800 grams of birth weight versus the average weight
of a normal child is 2,500 grams.
The ambulance has a transfer defibrillator monitor,
a high-frequency ventilator, special infusion pumps
for transport and a specific incubator for neonatal
transport, which has temperature and light control.
Additionally it has a communication system from the
driver's attention booth, to inform those aboard
about the patient's condition, the oxygen
distribution system and lighting control, air
conditioning, odor extraction units and is wide
enough to be able to perform foot maneuvers if
needed.
According to Active 20-30, the neonatal ambulance is
part of other donations such as a hyperbaric
medicine room, laser therapy equipment, transcranial
digital Doppler, and the laparoscopic tower,
delivered to Children's Hospital*, in
addition to the donation of medical equipment Guápiles Hospital*.
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Is the Red Cross committee in your community in need of a donation from the lottery or Active 20-30 club? We
would like to know your thoughts
on this story. Send your
comments to news@amcostarica.com
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