Improving community health by providing life-saving medical care through hospital support, essential supplies, and programs that bring healthcare to underserved communities.
Providing Equipment and a NICU Mother’s Center in Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Poverty-stricken villagers have been moving to the city of Santa Cruz in unprecedented numbers.
The Hospital Japonés, a government-run hospital in Santa Cruz serving the poor, turns away many patients due to a lack of critical equipment to meet the needs of the rapidly growing population. There are no reasonable options for these patients because other hospitals in Santa Cruz are expensive, private facilities.
In the summer of 2018, after recognizing a need for sanitary housing for new mothers in the hospital, Yapay Bolivia constructed a private NICU center for mothers to wash clothes (including diapers), shower and privately pump breast milk. The center greatly contributes to the comfort and health of mothers and new babies. Additionally, community members from the United States created postpartum kits that new mothers have received through the Hospital Japonés’ Labor and Delivery unit. Yapay Bolivia delivered these bags, along with Days for Girls hygiene kits, to the Hospital Japonés in the summer of 2019.
In Yapay Bolivia’s first interaction with the Hospital Japonés in 2017, Yapay Bolivia purchased $30,000 worth of new life-saving equipment, including vitals monitors and infusion pumps. The equipment was purchased brand new at competitive prices using the Santa Cruz hospital system suppliers with manufacturer warranties to ensure longevity and bolster economic growth in the region. The donated equipment to the Hospital Japonés has increased its capacity to treat poverty-stricken patients in Santa Cruz.
The Hospital Japonés reports monthly on equipment usage. Two independent auditors report quarterly on equipment maintenance. This Hospital Japonés responded positively to the tracking system of the machines’ usage and has since implemented it throughout the hospital. From 2016 to the 2020, the total expenditure for the Hospital Japonés is $71,202.05.
Training community members for rural healthcare access.
In Bolivia’s rural regions, nearly 7 in 10 adults with chronic illnesses never receive regular screening or follow-up care— leaving preventable conditions undetected and untreated.
Pro Mujer and Yapay are partnering to close this gap through a combined Telehealth and Community Health Worker (CHW) Program designed to bring preventive care directly to remote communities. In 2024, Yapay donated two new portable telemedicine devices—expanding Pro Mujer’s fleet to four active units—and supported incentives for 30 women CHWs serving seven rural municipalities across Santa Cruz, La Paz, Tarija, and Oruro. These CHWs provide local screenings, health counseling, and tele-referrals for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), while supervising nurses coordinate with Innovasalud and Pro Mujer’s medical teams to deliver virtual consultations. Together, the program reduces the cost and burden of travel—often up to eight hours—to reach city hospitals, enabling timely detection and treatment closer to home.
Over its initial six-month implementation, the program aims to reach at least 500 people with NCD screenings and telehealth access. Telemedicine units are already delivering meaningful impact: across 49 rural communities, they have supported 12 health campaigns, 172 clinic days, and more than 1,300 patient visits—most commonly for hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, and respiratory disease. By strengthening the skills of 30 women CHWs, improving early diagnosis, and removing barriers to care, the initiative is elevating community health while empowering women as leaders in local healthcare delivery.
A beacon of life saving medicine Potosi, Bolivia
Over 200,000 Bolivian children live in extreme poverty. We wanted to combat that in a direct way.
The Hospital Daniel Bracamontes in Potosí, Bolivia was in desperate of medical supplies. Potosí is the poorest and most dispersed department in all of Bolivia so Yapay Bolivia set out to gather as many supplies as they could to help get the hospital what it needed.
At nearly 14,420 feet–only 4,000 feet shy of the elevation of Mt. Everest base camp–rests the city
of Potosi, founded by Spanish Conquistadors in 1545 and home to 140,000 Bolivian citizens. The natural beauty and historic Spanish architecture are tempered by the gravity of the healthcare situation in this mining town.
Sister Romalda (pictured left) serves the Hospital Bracamonte, the hospital serving the poor of Potosi, as a nurse and nun. Ill and impoverished women and children turn to Nurse Romalda, or Romi as she is affectionately called, for help and assistance when they have no one else to turn to. “I came here from Argentina seventeen years ago with the intention to preach the word of God to the people here in Potosi, but when I saw the degree of their suffering, when I saw how hungry and cold and weak they were from hours of traveling in search of medical care I thought to myself ‘these people don’t need the word of God right now, they need the hand of God,’ and I put my Bible on the table and set to helping.”
That was nearly two decades ago. Every day, Romi can be found cataloging medical supplies and medications in the little building behind the hospital where people show up between 10 am and noon to receive their free or reduced cost medications.
