One of the wonders of the central Colombian landscape is the coffee region, known as the Eje Cafetero, comprising three small cities close to each other – Armenia, Pereira, and Manizales. These three cities, along with the small towns surrounding them, form the most important coffee region in a country internationally renowned for its rich coffee, appreciated worldwide.
This region preserves its ancestral traditions while opening up to tourism, showcasing coffee farms and demonstrating the process of making excellent coffee, from roasting and grinding to packaging the coffee beans. Overseeing this process is the Quindío wax palm, Colombia's national tree.
The Eje Cafetero is not far from my hometown, Medellín, and one of my most enjoyable job responsibilities is visiting this region to promote the Angels Initiative. There, I always find a warm reception, delicious traditional cuisine, and genuinely friendly people eager to take Angels to another level, one that even a large capital city like Medellín has yet to achieve.
We often assume that cities with more economic resources and better healthcare infrastructure are more likely to implement the Angels Initiative effectively. However, what is often needed is simply passion and the desire to make things happen. In this context, what I discovered in Armenia – a small city with approximately 300,000 inhabitants, a tenth of Medellín's population – is particularly inspiring.
Armenia is fortunate to have an “Angel” who educates primary healthcare providers, doctors, nurses and all health personnel in the region about the proper and timely management of stroke. His real name is Ángel Corredor, a neurologist passionate about saving lives and deeply committed to changing his patients’ world.
Dr Corredor’s clinical home is the Clínica Central del Quindío, an institution dedicated to outstanding stroke management and a regional center of excellence in this field.
In 2023, it received international certification as a stroke center by the World Stroke Organization (WSO), becoming the first clinic in the Eje Cafetero to hold this distinction. Additionally, it is the only institution in the region to earn diamond status in the WSO Angels Awards program due to its outstanding results in managing and caring for stroke patients.
