Tepehua Center Builidng was established in November of 2010. The Center has established a medical and dental clinic as well as many other services in partnership with the residents of the barrio and foreign retirees in area. We sent Michael Denis, retired hospital administrator from Denton, to the Barrio in April to assess the organization of pharmacy services. From his assessment they need to create a system to provide a regular supply of pharmaceutical supplies. Volunteer medical and dental staff could be more effective in preventing disease and in efficient in treating medical and dental conditions. For example, a child comes to the clinic for treatment of parasites. They have enough medicine to treat the child but not enough to treat his family. Thus, when they go home they are typically re-infected. Dental Clinic could do more advanced treatment, like root canals, if medical supplies were more consistent and available. ( www.tepehua.org )
We have Michael Denis's commitment to continue to secure donations to maintain a supply of drugs for the clinic. Mr. Denis has secured a donation $5000 for the center in March 2014. Center has some 30 foreign retirees who volunteer at the Center and provide funds to the center. Ajijic Rotary Club and Church groups from the USA also provide financial and volunteer support for special projects. The UNT Student Chapter of Future Without Poverty is writing a grant to rehab houses in the Barrio with plastic roofs and walls.
The Center has taken a number of steps to reduce illness in the barrio: 1) to reduce stomach issues the center now offers filtered water for residents to collect at the center, 2) to improve the worst houses that have plastic roofs and walls they have been renovating individual homes, one by one, to reduce moisture or mold in some homes, 3) recently they acquired a van to take the clinic staff to other poor families in the area, 4) to reduce food insecurity they feed some 200 children every Friday, 5) they are training residents to become home care workers and thus improve their economic status, 6) they assist women to create products in their sewing center to be sold at their store in Ajijic and improve their economic status, and finally 7) they have a plan to establish a plaza in the barrio for small shops to be operated by local residents after they receive training in business management.
This Center is the ONLY viable source of clean drinking water, medical and dental care, a hot shower, a hot meal and job training for hundreds of women and children living in the Tepehua Barrios in a very poor barrio Chapala, Mexico.
Moonyeen King is chair of the Tepehua Center Board and has global experience in community development and is a Paul Harris Rotary Awardee. From Texas she moved to Chapala in 2001 and took over the new Tepehua Center in 2010, after being on a previous community development effort in Chapala, called Love in Action. She helped raise $300,000 for the overall project. The Center continues to expand and has the potential to significantly improve the lives of family in the barrio and in nearby barrios.
As noted above the center leadership has created a major facility ($40,000 to renovate a building in 2010) with medical and dental clinic , new kitchen, used clothing store, sewing center, reading room for children, and play area for children. They have created a network of local supporters, e.g., Rotary club, retirees, city officials to assist the center in their effort to improve family sustainability. They have proved that they have the staying power to maintain and expand the center. The Ajijic Rotary Club has managed other grant funds from Rotary International for the Center and other sources .
Stan Ingman from Denton Rotary Club has been active in Mexico for 20 years and visited this center three time in the twelve months. His colleagues in Ajijic, Dr Joe Deleon and Bob Olson who volunteer at the Center and who provide financial support to the center, introduced him to the Center initially. In 2013, the UNT Student Chapter of FWOP www.fwop.org donated $500 to rehab one home.
The Denton Rotary Club plans to begin with the pharmacy project and then take members from the Denton to visit the Center in the Fall and assess what other areas we can assist the Center with. The goal is to make Tepehua Center a site for intensive involvement from for the Denton Rotary Club. There is easy access from Guadalajara Airport (30 minutes) and the airport is some 2 1/2 hours from Dallas DFW.
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