Binational Health Week

As you are all aware, Hurricane Harvey has devastated Houston and surrounding areas sending many evacuees to the 23 counties the Ventanilla de Salud (VdS) in the Mexican Consulate in Austin, TX serves. Latinos seeking services from the Austin Consulate have increased substantially and this is predicted to continue as more displaced families are relocated to the area. This year’s Binational Health Week, co-sponsored by VdS and Migrant Clinicians Network, is a unique opportunity to get important health screenings and services to underserved Latino families hit hard by Harvey. Roughly 250 to 300 Latino families from surrounding counties as well as families from right in the neighborhood will attend Binational Health Week events starting on September 29 – but we need your help to be able to provide health services for so many families.

We are raising $1400 to meet our $2,700 goal to host this event and pay for table rentals, food, childcare, and other services for attendees. If you are not able to donate you can still help by sharing this post and spreading the word. Anything raised over our $1,400 goal will be donated to the Houston Food Bank to help victims who have not been relocated to surrounding areas. 

BHW is an annual event celebrated by federal, state, and local organizations and government agencies as a way to mobilize underserved Latinos in the US by offering resources to improve their health and well-being. This seventeenth installation of health activities primarily taking place within the US had its kick-off in Mexico under the slogan, “Because the right to health has no borders.” The VDS office is geared toward education and services to beneficiaries from in and around Latin America living within the 23 counties surrounding the state’s capital, services they provide to folks when they visit the Mexican Consulate and to the larger community during public health fairs.

Migrant Clinicians Network is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that creates practical solutions at the intersection of poverty, migration, and health. We provide bridge case management, support, technical assistance, and professional development to clinicians in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and other health care delivery sites with the ultimate purpose of providing quality health care that increases access and reduces disparities for migrant farmworkers and other mobile underserved populations.