Gustavo Parajón was a Nicaraguan doctor and pastor, most known for his peacemaking efforts during the Contra War and his contributions to rural health care, vaccination campaigns, and disaster relief in Nicaragua. Parajón attended Denison University, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Harvard School of Public Health and earned a master's degree in Public Health before returning to Nicaragua. He founded the Nicaragua Vaccination and Community Development Program (PROVADENIC) in 1967 in order to facilitate vaccination in rural areas of Nicaragua, beginning with smallpox, tuberculosis, leprosy, and polio vaccines administered via a jet injector. PROVADENIC also trained locals in basic health practices to maintain prevention efforts. Parajón also helped found the Council of Protestant Churches of Nicaragua (CEPAD) on December 23, 1972, in response to a massive earthquake that devastated Managua, Nicaragua. CEPAD facilitated disaster relief within four days, quickly became the largest relief organization in the country, and later expanded to other development programs. Parajón played several key roles in bringing about the end of the Contra War. He visited Washington D.C. to raise awareness of what was happening in Nicaragua. He hosted the American volunteers who came to Nicaragua as part of the Witness for Peace campaign and traveled with them and other peace commissions. He traveled unarmed, without bodyguards. In 1987, Parajón worked with an organization comprising Nicaraguan Moravian Church leaders and U.S. Mennonites headed by John Paul Lederach to mediate conflict between the Sandinista Nicaraguan government and the

Contras The Contras were the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to 1990 in opposition to the Marxist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction Government in Nicaragua, which came to power in 1979 fol ...

. Afterward, Parajón served as a citizen representative of Nicaragua during the discussions that led to the

Esquipulas Peace Agreement The Esquipulas Nicaraguan Peace Agreement, also known as the Central American Peace Accords, was a peace initiative in the mid-1980s to settle the military conflicts that had plagued Central America for many years, and in some cases (notably Gu ...

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Parajón, Gustavo Nicaraguan physicians Nicaraguan religious leaders Nicaraguan Christians Denison University alumni Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine alumni Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health alumni 1935 births 2011 deaths