Margarita Quintanilla is Nicaragua country program leader for the Seattle-based health organization PATH, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s largest grantee in Seattle. Her office has grown to 15 people, now working to improve the welfare of women, introduce health technology and build bridges between that work and supporters here in the Northwest.
FATIMA DEL ROSARIO Gonzalez Polanco sits alone in the back of a taxi for the bumpy ride to the hospital here in La Dalia, a small mountain town in the highlands of central Nicaragua.
As the driver maneuvers through the town’s bustling marketplace, Fatima wants to call her mother to tell her what’s happening, but she doesn’t have a way.
At just 13 years old, Fatima is about to have her first baby.
It Takes More Than Villages To Keep Mothers Safe
The Seattle Times | Kristi Heim and Erika Schultz | November 26, 2011