MEDICAL CLINIC

Mercy Clinic is our medical facility at Casa Angelina and is located at the entrance of the orphanage complex. At Mercy Clinic, we employ a medical director, pediatrician, general doctor, nurse, lab technician, and social worker. There are two entrances to the clinic—one used by the villagers who come for care and a private entrance for the children, staff, and volunteers of Casa Angelina. Every day the medical staff treat the local villagers from 8 a.m. to noon, seeing a minimum of 28 patients. Without Mercy Clinic, these people would receive little to no medical care. People live throughout the villages in the valleys and hills, which requires many of them to travel several miles to our clinic in order to receive quality and inexpensive health care. When someone arrives at our clinic, they are asked to give a small donation of $1.25 in order to pay for their consultation with the doctor. We have become a very important part of the culture in our area, and the word has spread from person to person that our clinic is open to any and all needs. We regularly see people who suffer from diabetes or high blood pressure, and we, in many cases, have become their regular healthcare provider. We also treat many people with acute skin problems, scabies, eczema, rashes, infections, pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, malnutrition, gastritis, urinary tract infections, parasites, and amoebas. Mercy Clinic is saving lives and directly affecting the health and lives of hundreds of people. We receive donated medications from teams that visit Casa Angelina throughout the year and also from Vine International (vineinternational.org), a non-profit organization specifically in Guatemala for the purpose of collecting and distributing medical supplies. They come to our clinic every three months to assess our needs and bring new supplies of fresh medication and other medical supplies. From our on-site pharmacy, we initially distribute the donated medication available to us. If we do not have the medication in the donated area of the pharmacy, the patient will buy medication that we have purchased ourselves at just a little above cost. The medication in Guatemala is very expensive; therefore, many people find it difficult to obtain the medicine they need. The very poorest people, some who earn only $3.00 US per day, are now able to come to our clinic and afford the care and medicine they desperately need. They are able to purchase important antibiotics for themselves and their families for just $1.50 or less.close