Loma Linda, California, United States …. [Patricia Thio/ANN]
A little girl with pigtails clenches her mother’s arm with a look of sadness. A man hangs his head down while massaging his temples. An elderly woman wipes her eyes with a tissue. These people in Mexico are part of the 60 percent of their region’s population who cannot afford health care. That’s why they wait patiently to receive primary care from Loma Linda University’s Students for International Mission Service (SIMS).
LLU has been providing health care in Mexico since the 1960s. Every month a group of students, doctors and other health professionals spend a weekend in Ensenada, Mexico, to help those who can’t afford a doctor. However, temporary locations for the clinic have prevented expansion and a permanent setting for its patients.
“For many years we have borrowed a state location to use as our clinic,” says Juan Carlos Belliard, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of international health at LLU. “However, when there is a change in government, we are often left without a clinic.”
Now there is a chance to solve that problem. A permanent clinic will be completed this year if the student missionary group can raise US$10,000.
“Those we help in Mexico can’t access health care other than free clinics like ours,” explains Dr. Belliard. “Especially when you look at dentistry. There is really no coverage for dental services. For medical care, we get people who have never been to a doctor before.”
The building, currently under construction, belongs to Iglesia Adventista de Maneadero, the Seventh-day Adventist Church near Ensenada, Mexico.
“Once it is built, we can make long-term plans for the clinic and the activities that are going to happen within it,” says Dr. Belliard.
Along with SIMS and local church members of the Iglesia Adventista de Maneadero, the Van Nuys Adventist Church is helping construct the health clinic.
“I was talking with one of the members of the church in Mexico and he is looking forward to fulfilling the dreams they have in telling others about God through this clinic,” says Mike Kim, pastor of the Van Nuys Church.
Currently, SIMS provides health care in the Sabbath School rooms at Iglesia Adventista de Maneadero. “Because we don’t have a permanent and actual clinic, the health care LLU provides is limited,” says Maxine Newell, coordinator of SIMS Mexico trips.
For more information about this project, visit the SIMS Web site at www.llu.edu/llu/sims.
