A new medical clinic has opened at the community center in the economically-challenged Tepehua neighborhood of Chapala.
Attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony were Chapala Mayor Javier Degollado and his wife, and Dr. Luis Manuel Espinosa Castillo, director of the Cardiovascular Institute at the University of Guadalajara.
Castillo is currently promoting the availability and use of mobile defibrillators and the proper use of CPR techniques in an effort to increase the survival rate of patients suffering severe heart attacks. He will participate in a demonstration of the use of these units for the benefit of the Centro Communitario clinic in the near future.
Over the past five years, the Centro Communitario has grown from its beginnings as a soup kitchen to offer family, nutrition and substance abuse counseling, as well as nursery and child care services, and a clothing store run by community members. There are also school programs for children and adults, inoculations, and now with the new clinic, medical screening, referral and treatment services.
The clinic opening caps five years of dedicated service to the Tepehua community center by Moonyeen King, its current president. King is also the Membership Chair of the Rotary Club of Ajijic.
Rotarian Gin Pelzel has also been actively involved in the development of the center since its beginning.
The clinic will receive additional funding from Rotary Clubs in Canada and the United States for equipment and supplies required for pre- and postnatal care of mothers and their babies.
The Rotary Club of Ajijic salutes Rotarians King, Pelzel and Espinosa Castillo for exemplifying the Rotary motto: service above self.