Costa Blanca's Calpe fundraiser for Indian hospital

THE traditional Manos Unidas charity fair which opened on Thursday last week in Calpe on the Costa Blanca closes on Thursday, February 27. The Manos Unidas Mercadillo at the Kabila Mascarat building in Carrer de Fora has been held for 52 years although the organisation also raises cash with a Christmas Fair and the sale of plants for St Valentine’s Day. This year Manos Unidas is raising funds to improve medical attention at a rural hospital in the state of Maharashtra in India. The project includes reforming the existing building with an extension for an Intensive Care Unit. The organisation will also provide three incubators, a ventilator, x-ray machine, ultrasound scanner, four medical monitors and an ophthalmological refraction unit. Manos Unidas calculates that the project will bring direct benefits to 65,000 people by improving health care in the Chandrapur and Gadchiroli districts. Manos Unidas isa Catholic and secular non-government volunteer organisation for the aid, promotion and development of the Third World that was founded in 1960. The organisation’s Calpe branch, whose current president is Pepita Ferrer, opened in 1968 and has around 100 members.