SDSU’s Flying Samaritans is a nonprofit, student run organization that provides free medical care to an underserved community in Tijuana, Mexico. On the third Sunday of each month, a group of student volunteers and medical providers travel to a community called La Morita to set up a free medical clinic.

Their mission is to bridge the gap in healthcare inequality and use their knowledge and resources to support those who are often overlooked and lack access to medical care. 

Lexi Pero, the head of lab and triage and fourth year student, describes her experience as “rewarding.” 

“We are just very privileged to be there and to play that active role in their healthcare experience,” said Pero.

At 4:30 a.m. on March 15, more than 50 student volunteers gathered near campus to go over the program before caravanning across the border. 

They arrived at the church around 6 a.m. and began setting up each station. The volunteers created provider rooms with pvc pipes and curtains and organized equipment in each respective area.

Registration opened at 8 a.m. and the clinic began to serve patients, the first of whom had arrived early to be seen as soon as it opened. 

Patients come for a variety of reasons, ranging from Covid or Flu tests, checking vitals and monitoring illnesses, to teeth cleaning or physical therapy. Many members of the community rely on Flying Sam’s for their medications and other services that they are not able to get elsewhere. 

Patients often return consistently, including Soledad Izquierdo Reyes who has been going to the clinic for many years to be treated for several issues, including glaucoma. 

Reyes is now 81 years old and expressed her gratitude to the Flying Samaritans for providing her with necessary medication and “hermosas servicios [beautiful services].”  

Recently, there have been major advancements to the clinic including the addition of an optometry station and the transition from paper files to an Electronic Health Record system. 

“Collectively all as leaders, we chose that we don’t want to just do what we’ve been doing, but we want to grow,” Jeremy La Rosa, Flying Sams’ president and fourth year student, said. “We want to do it in the best way possible.” 

Along with the group of students, several medical professionals also volunteer at the clinic to work with patients, as well as giving students the opportunity to shadow and assist. 

“We have a gentleman here who recently had an amputation. If that case was in the U.S., he would already have been fitted for a prosthetic,” Gail Bachman, a physical therapist and SDSU alumni that has volunteered at these clinics for years, said. 

“He has to physically pay out of pocket for a prosthetic, and his family can’t really afford that. And so, likely, he just won’t be able to ambulate.” 

Later that day, that patient’s wife told Bachman that they had built a homemade prosthetic leg by melting plastic on the stovetop and molding it to his leg. Bachman and the volunteers were amazed to see a video of the patient walking down the street with the makeshift prosthetic and a walker.

The Flying Sam’s team was able to provide care for 70 patients during this clinic, some seeking dental care or physical therapy, and many coming for general medical assistance. 

“I feel like it genuinely has like shaped me into like a better future healthcare provider,” Anna Sklyar, a second year kinesiology major who has volunteered at multiple clinics, said. “With like every clinic you learn so much, but you also learn about […] the world and the people around you and […] the people that you have yet to serve.”

From students who are fluent Spanish speakers to those practicing introductory phrases with patients, each person on the team is able to connect with the community in their own way. 

“Whether you’re [in] healthcare or not, I think this is a great opportunity to just kind of, like, put forth your best effort into becoming a better person day by day, ” Shawn Wong, clinic coordinator and third year student, said. 

“Serving in a community like this has opened my eyes, like, not even within healthcare, but just as a person.”