Although the Telethon was held between December 5 and 7, it will be until next February that the money for the Hospital de la Anexión in Nicoya will be allocated for the purchase of medical equipment, which would be delivered during the first half of 2014.
After finishing the event, which brought together the people and businesses of Costa Rica, the tally showed that ¢703,815,245 ($1.4 M) had been raised, surpassing the goal of 700 million colones.
The amount of money raised during Nicoya’s Mini Telethon has not yet been determined, according to Oliver Perez, the event’s organizer in the ‘Colonial City,’ and Marco Brenes, the Telethon’s spokesperson for Club Activo 20-30.
Brenes explained that many Nicoyans donated digitally through bank accounts and cellular text messages and that collection boxes carried through the city were taken directly to San Jose’s Telethon.
According to Brenes, “We left text messaging and bank account (donations) open for two more weeks. Kolbi (ICE) is also doing that, so the final cut-off will come at the end of January.”
Last year, the extra days increased the final amount raised by a bit more than ¢10 million ($20,000). “It’s an important amount that helps to supply equipment. On January 20 we will receive the collection boxes which had been left out longer to raise a bit more. There aren’t many; they’re about 40 more from the 18,000 that went out at first.”
The spokesperson indicated that the money isn’t calculated as an amount for each medical center, “Club Activo 20-30 meets with representatives of each hospital, they collect numbers of how many patients are assisted and the necessity of each precinct. The funds aren’t given in cash, but rather an equivalent amount (of credit) when purchases are made.”
“In February, when the equipment is purchased, we’ll be able to say how much money has been allocated to each hospital. We are very careful; we don’t want to create problems. The preliminary list from each hospital has already been requested, and now they will be asked for their priorities for equipment, and in January they will tell us the technical specifications of equipment and the order of priority,” explained Brenes.
The Director of the Hospital de la Anexión, Dr. Jorge Fonseca, mentioned that they ordered typical incubators, open and for transport, infant and neonatal ventilators, general monitoring equipment, cribs and lamps, among others.
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