If Candido Calderius Rios had been born 200 miles farther North, his medical career would not have made as big an impact. Rather than fighting through the bureaucracy of U.S. hospitals, health plans and government regulations, he has followed his calling to serve into the jungles of Central America, where he has saved thousands of lives and improved countless others.

The native of Jatibonico, Cuba, has been practicing medicine for 30 years since his graduation from that country’s University of Camaguey, with nearly all of that time spent in Nicaragua. Working with medical brigades to support public health projects, Candido developed deep specialty experience in Tropical Medicine, which he brought to the Rainbow Network in 2002.

Since that time, he has built our Medical Program into the life-saving outreach that touches so many lives. He oversees a team of eight full-time doctors that have treated more than 675,000 patients across our network territories. Candido says that he has become very attached to his special needs patients, especially in the Northern regions.

His commitment to those we serve brought him to the U.S. several years ago, where he spent a month training on the use of a portable ultrasound. He returned to Nicaragua, leveraging that knowledge and a donated machine to extend the reach of Rainbow Network’s medical outreach to all seven regions.

“The first time that I touched a bible was in the Rainbow Network,” the married father of three says. Despite that, he refers to himself as a “soldier” for Christ, maintaining that “moral commitment” to our Mission across both his professional and personal life.