Client
Fondo de Paz UT
Arauca is a Colombian department defined by decades of armed conflict. Bordering Venezuela, its most remote communities spent years under the presence of armed groups that blocked access to basic state services — including healthcare. With the implementation of the Peace Agreement and the launch of the PDET (Territorial Development Plans with a Conflict-Focused Approach), the Colombian government set out to close those historic gaps. It was in that context that the Fondo de Paz UT, in partnership with the Agencia de Renovación del Territorio (Colombia's Territory Renewal Agency), commissioned the Hospital del Sarare ESE to deploy two high-complexity mobile medical units into these communities: a blood bank and a gynecological unit with mammography. NINOX was the company selected to design and build them. The result was far more than two vehicles — it was a declaration that peace is also built with healthcare.
01
Communities the system had never reached
Arauca occupies a singular place in Colombia's peace geography. Its plains and forests shelter municipalities like Arauquita, Fortul, Puerto Rondón, and Saravena — classified as ZOMAC zones (territories most affected by armed conflict) and prioritized within the PDET framework. For decades, the presence of guerrilla groups turned mobility into a risk and state access into an exception. Women in these communities, in particular, had no access to basic reproductive health screenings: a mammogram, a Pap smear, a gynecological consultation were services that simply did not exist near them.
The diagnosis was clear: building fixed infrastructure in municipal centers was not enough. The most vulnerable communities were scattered across rural settlements that no specialized health institution could reach. The solution had to go to where the people were. The Fondo de Paz UT, the health program operator within the PDET framework, came to NINOX with that mandate: build units that would bring the hospital to the territories.
02
The challenge of turning a truck into a hospital
Designing a mobile medical unit for post-conflict zones means solving multiple engineering tensions at once. The vehicle must be rugged enough to navigate tertiary roads and dirt tracks in extreme weather conditions, while its interior must offer the same aseptic conditions, controlled temperature, and instrumental precision required in a clinical setting. For the blood bank, this meant incorporating certified refrigeration systems for blood component preservation, extraction bays with cots and channeling systems, sample processing equipment, and autonomous power generation to maintain the cold chain at any point in the territory.
For the gynecological and mammography unit, the challenge was even greater: integrating a diagnostic mammography machine — precision optical and mechanical equipment requiring an anti-vibration platform, stabilized electrical connection, and structural shielding — inside a mobile bodywork that also had to house a complete gynecological clinic with privacy, clinical lighting, and functional space for both patient and physician. NINOX resolved each of these requirements with thermoplastic aluminum bodywork, sanitary flooring, zoned climate control systems, and a backup generator integrated into the lateral compartment of each unit.
03
Two units, one mission: bringing peace through healthcare
The two units delivered to Hospital del Sarare ESE are identical in exterior architecture: expanded bodywork on medium-tonnage Isuzu chassis, finished in institutional white with high-visibility graphics and the unmistakable Medical Mission emblem on the roof — the red circle with white cross that identifies them as health units protected under International Humanitarian Law. Both carry the phrase that captures the spirit of the program: 'In the FONDO of Arauca, there is PEACE.'
The Mobile Blood Bank is equipped for donor recruitment, whole blood extraction, blood component processing, and refrigerated storage. Its side awning deploys to create an open-air waiting area, and the rear access ramp allows donors with reduced mobility to board without barriers. The Gynecological and Mammography unit houses a diagnostic mammography machine inside — the first contact with this type of equipment for thousands of women in Arauca — alongside a fully equipped gynecological clinic with examination table, clinical lighting, and complete privacy. Both units operate as compact hospitals: energy self-sufficient, climate-controlled, and certified to deliver third-level health services in open-field conditions.
04
Healthcare as an act of peace
The deployment of these two units across the PDET municipalities of Arauca represents something that coverage indicators do not fully capture: the first time. The first time a woman in a rural settlement in Fortul has access to a mammogram. The first time a community in Arauquita can donate blood without traveling hours to a hospital. The first time the state arrives not with a security brigade, but with a cot and a stethoscope. That is the symbolic — and very real — weight these units carry.
The Mobile Blood Bank and the Gynecological Mammography Unit are also a commitment to prevention: reproductive health and blood availability are two of the most critical links in any rural health system. Their absence has cost lives. Their presence — lasting, periodic, mobile — changes the equation. NINOX built the units. Peace put them on the road.
"The Fondo de Paz UT project exemplifies what NINOX understands by purposeful engineering: building not just a structure, but the instrument that makes a right possible. In this case, the right to healthcare for Colombian communities that for far too long lived on the margins of the system. When the Blood Bank and the Gynecological Unit left NINOX's facilities bound for Arauca, they did not simply fulfill a contract. They crossed a historical line."
