BUILDING A CLINIC TOGETHER — Community Empowerment

The new clinic in Villa Verde is being built through a collaborative process aimed at empowering the community and its leaders. The collaboration, which involves the donation of physical labor as well as a contribution of 10% of the building costs, is being run by Movemientos Unidos Por Villa Verde - a community group formed by local leadership. Despite the immense barriers created by COVID, they have worked tirelessly to provide volunteer labor and raise their portion of the funds. In doing so, the needs and ownership of this project are developed in the community by the community.

“This fundraiser has been more difficult than we expected due to the financial difficulties caused by the pandemic, as many of the people who would like to contribute are limited by the scarcity of resources and the loss of their jobs, however, we are confident that through hard work and dedication we will be able to complete our contribution.” - Adonis Peña, community leader

In order to raise the money, the community leaders held two fundraising events or “kermés”. For the first, each prepared a special food dish, which was sold at an affordable price to the community. Due to the effectiveness of this initiative, the second fundraiser was similar, but this time with the contribution of different dishes by some of Community Empowerment’s patients. Both events were successful despite the fact that nearly 1 million people have become unemployed due to the pandemic.

“This process of fundraising for 10% of our contribution, has served as a way to unite us more as a team and learn to take care of the testimony of our movement, but above all to support each other. We have learned in each process and this is what has helped us to gain the trust of the community and the patients.” - Venecia “Flaca” Perez Lorenzo, community leader

To reach the 10% goal, the leaders are currently organizing a raffle. In the meantime, they continue to build the clinic theirselves. Once finished, it will be a creation of their hard work and dedication.

“To be able to say that we contributed, not only with labor but also financially in the construction of this project fills us with pride. We hope that just as this movement has arisen to seek help in the community, more people can join and continue to contribute a grain of sand for our people.” - Pedro Manuel Garcia Reyes, community leader

The second kermés, which helped raise money for the clinic.