Picture a quilt in the gifted hands of the women who created it, each one stitching her heart and her hopes, etching her losses as well as her dreams into her piece, silently sharing her story, opening her heart to give and to receive. Picture these women – mothers and daughters and sisters and aunts – taking remnants and making a whole, every single stitch supporting all the others, making something much greater than the sum of its parts. The final product is both practical and beautiful, a work of art that also gives warmth, comfort and care.
The women of The Caridad Center have created a quilt together, through an outreach program called Healing Stitches, and that quilt will soon occupy a place of honor on the walls of this exceptional health and social support facility in Boynton Beach. The quilt represents hours of labor, dedication, skill, teamwork and care exactly like The Caridad Center itself. Founded in 1989, Caridad provides free medical care, dental care, education and social services to thousands of South Florida residents.
Founded in 1989 by Ascencio Caridad to assist the migrant workers who labored on Florida farms, the Caridad Center is a non-profit administered by The Migrant Association of South Florida. It has grown from a single white trailer to a multi-service health clinic staffed by more than 500 volunteers, including 100 physicians and 70 dentists. Caridad provides services to a growing uninsured immigrant population who are 150% at or below the poverty level. Last year, Caridad served over 7,000 patients, one-fourth of whom are children, and averaged 1600 patient visits per month.
Pedro del Sol, Chief Executive Officer since 2003, describes the Caridad Center clients as “an unseen population.” Although the Center was created to care for migrant workers and their families, the demand for migrant workers has decreased and many are now employed in low paying jobs. The goal of the Center, del Sol says, is to upgrade the health, education and living standards for the laborers, their children and all the underserved people and working poor of Palm Beach County, keeping them as healthy and productive as possible. “We want to keep them from becoming a burden to society. By providing care to them, we are preventing small problems from becoming crises, keeping them from going to the Emergency Rooms for care, and we are helping them avoid hospital admissions.” Volunteer physician specialists, representing many fields, provide medical care at Caridad. They offer primary care, treatment for chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, gynecological exams, screening exams including mammograms, lab tests, dental services and much more. In addition, the Center provides medication and health education.
To del Sol, the volunteers, from the health care professions and the community, are the heart of the Caridad program. “Our volunteers are the best people in the world. They are happy to be helping. One of the doctors said to me, At Caridad, I can finally practice medicine like I did 20 years ago. Our volunteers are incredible.”
That level of commitment is one factor that keeps the doors of Caridad open. The health clinic operates six days a week, in a setting that has six exam rooms, six dental care rooms, an x-ray room and an intake room, where an initial assessment is performed. There is a multi-purpose conference room that often serves as a classroom.
Education services include The Afterschool Homework Assistance Program, pairing dozens of at-risk children with retired volunteer teachers. The Scholarship Program has placed seven young men and women at Palm Beach Community College. Caridad also assists individuals and families in becoming accustomed to American culture, through socialization programs like Healing Stitches, and provides short-term emergency financial support to help clients avoid evictions and loss of utilities
The Caridad Center relies almost entirely on the generosity of others to carry out its mission. The facility has received minimal government assistance and is dependent on donations and volunteers to remain in operation. It has a $3 million annual budget and just 11% of donated funds are applied to administrative costs.
“This facility is not taxpayer funded,” says del Sol. “Our supporters give their time, money, equipment and supplies; we have many unmet needs and fundraising is an ongoing challenge. If we were not here, all of the care we are providing will shift to the hospitals, to their emergency rooms, which are already overwhelmed.”
Assistance came to Caridad this past year from a number of the regions hospitals, which showed their support by donating funds. But according to Florida State Representative Susan Bucher, an advocate for Caridad, additional ongoing sources of funding need to be identified. “The hospitals have been wonderful,” she says. “and we appreciate their help. At Caridad, the poorest of the poor, who do not qualify for government assistance, are served, and the need is desperate. Caridad eases suffering and even saves lives, while significantly relieving the congestion in the emergency rooms. Caridad makes a difference.”
To a twelve-year-old girl named Maria, the Caridad Center made a critical difference. Born with a congenital virus, she was blind in one eye and partially blind in the other. With Caridad getting support from specialists within the community, she received treatment and now has 20/20 vision in that eye. Thanks to Caridad, Maria was able to see her mothers face for the first time in her life.
