Clinica Medica San Luis Obispo
A MAJOR PROJECT

During MANO’S early years, 1966 to the 1980’s, we spearheaded the creation of a medical outpatient clinic for the poor of Tijuana, concentrating on medical services in the area of the Tijuana dump. People in this area were often displaced from the homes from which they migrated in the interior of Mexico. Many of them intended to cross the border to the U.S. to look for work. Some were not able to make the crossing and eked out a living at the dump, housing themselves with pieces of cardboard and scrapwood.

In 1996 we established a medical outpatient clinic for the poor in Colonia Miramar, Tijuana which provided direct medical services to over 350 people a month, many of them living in the impoverished colonias nearby. The clinic was staffed by Dr. Ester Fuertes and sisters who are trained nurses and administrators from the order of the Sisters of the Poor, Servants of the Sacred Heart (Hermanas de los Pobres, Siervas del Sacrado Corazon).

MANO purchased land a few doors away from this small but effective outpost, with money donated by parishioners at the Mission San Luis de Obispo in Central California. We hired a local architect who designed a building to be used as a hospital facility and began the process of permitting and grading of the land. Construction began on the 2 story 11,000 square foot building, and the original steel beams rose from the packed earth, and held there waiting while a miracle took shape.

This evolved into a 2-story 11,000 sq. ft. modern charity Clinic, the Clinica Medica San Luis Obisbo, providing dental, prenatal care and internal medicine as well as outpatient services, nutritional education programs, mental health and psychology programs, home health, family and teen counseling, and an improved pharmacy. This care is free to those who cannot pay, but those who have the means to do so pay according to their ability.

The construction and operation of this charity Clinic was made possible through the help of many individuals, organizations and contributors such as the International Relief Teams (www.irteams.org), US Navy and Marine Corps, church groups, foundations and businesses in Mexico, the United States and Europe. Volunteer laborers and in-kind donations of materials and medical equipment are a vital portion of this project.

The Clinic Project was blessed by the unexpected arrival of Father James Hagan, an experienced builder who happened upon the project in early 2001 while on his way to the smaller clinic to check on a parishioner. He began working on the beams, improving, restructuring and redesigning key elements, providing his own workers and resources.

At the same time, MANO was also blessed with a grant from the International Relief Teams of construction assistance. Experienced builders joined Father Jaime, now Director of Construction, and the Clinic construction moved at a rapid pace to its Dedication Ceremony in February 2003.