Your staying at one of our lodges is one thing, but on top of that you will also be a contributor to the regional development of our Health Care project, to nature and to our economy, with the main focus on primary health care for the young and old. Danpaati River Lodge is actually partaker in the Bonama Foundation.

In 1994 some pioneers started a health care project in Suriname. They started in Paramaribo, but in 1998 they shifted their activities mainly to Suriname’s interior, towards the Saramaccan (Marron tribe) living in the Upper Suriname region.

At first, Home Care organizations had established and funded/ sponsored this project. In 1998 the former RZG, now Menzis Care and Income took over, together with Woonzorg Nederland, and also Sensire/TZG. In 2004 Menzis as well as Woonzorg Nederland agreed on supporting the project during the next 4 (four) years. That’s when the Bonama Foundation was initiated. ‘Bo-nama’ is the Saramaccan word for: We / Let’s do it together! The Bonama Foundation is currently implementing this project.

The ‘Health Care project’ is called ‘Durable Development Care in the Upper Suriname Region’. This project is aimed at establishing structural development within the field of primary health care in the Upper Suriname region.

Developing the primary home care of the elderly living in twelve villages surrounding Danpaati River Lodge is the main focus. Moreover, a Day Care centre was set up for children aged 2 to 4 years. The complete Care Project was managed under direct supervision of the local village authorities in cooperation with the managing board of the Bonama Foundation. The finances for this project are partially generated from the profits gained by Danpaati River Lodge.

Villagers are being trained and coached to provide primary care to senior villagers. There are also three ‘family homes/day care centres’ which have been built to take care of senior villagers and children of age 2 – 4 years.

Many young people, mostly men from the interior of Suriname, leave the villages to go and find work in Paramaribo and French Guyana. The women remain behind, taking care of their own family as well as of their close relatives.

Sometimes they spent several days in a row at their farmland to grow vegetables and fruits. Needy senior villagers are left behind uncared for and isolated because of this. The river is too far off, the laundry is too heavy and using a broom to sweep the place is too exhausting to them. Collecting wood and working the field is out of the question.

The Bonama Foundation provides assistance in this field with a Health Care Project aimed at primary Home Care.

The field in which this project provides Home Care includes an estimated number of eight thousand people. They live in twelve separate villages that are linked to this project.

Danpaati River Lodge, a lodge for tourists, was built mainly to bring in the finances for the entire Care project in the Upper Suriname River, on an island. In this way, means for employment are created for the villagers, the lodge is generating money and special activities, creating visable spin-off effects in the region.

You are the one who can make the difference by staying at the DANPAATI RIVER LODGE ! A pleasant feeling …!