Dr. Kenneth Serapio, who holds the distinction of being the first Miskito surgeon, is retiring at the end of February after several years of dedicated service at the Ahuas Clinic.
Dr. Kenneth was born in Raití, a village on the Río Coco in Nicaragua, near the current border with Honduras. When his home country was engulfed in war in the 1970s and 80s, Dr. Kenneth’s life was in danger and he had to leave Nicaragua. He traveled to the United States for a time to visit friends and then traveled to Honduras, where he visited the border to see what the conditions were for refugees in the camps there. It was during this time that Dr. Kenneth first connected with the Ahuas Clinic. He managed the clinic from 1985 until 1990, visiting the refugee camps when he could spare time on the weekends. Many refugees were coming to the Ahuas Clinic, as well, so there was much work to be done there. When the war ended he returned to Nicaragua with the refugees. He served most of his medical career in Nicaragua. After his retirement, he was contacted by the Clinic and, after hearing about the great needs in Ahuas, he agreed to come back to the clinic for two years. Well, two years came and went, and February marks ten years of service since his return to the clinic. In those ten years, he has completed over 2,300 surgeries.
Passionate about the Miskito people and their right to receive quality medical care in their own language, Dr. Kenneth has been a source of comfort and hope to many through his work at the Ahuas Clinic. We give thanks for his many years of service and his dedication to his work, even as war and discrimination threatened his career path many times along the way. Thank you, Dr. Kenneth!
We encourage you to read more about Dr. Kenneth in this fascinating article from the Petra Foundation, which works in his hometown of Raití. This short biography was written before Dr. Kenneth’s return to the Ahuas Clinic: http://petrafoundation.org/fellows/kenneth-serapio-hunter/index.html
We also invite you to watch this interview of Dr. Kenneth, taken in March of 2023:
