Free Tzu Chi Foundation clinic offers medical help and hope
MILPITAS >> Mark Lee has had pain in his right leg for about three months; it nags him mostly in the morning.
The 70-year-old lived in Houston following his inmigration to America from Taiwan in 1979. He recently moved to Newark, and hasn’t yet found a doctor near his new home.
But thanks to the help of the Tzu Chi Foundation — an international nonprofit that among other services helps people access free medical care — Lee was in a waiting room Sunday morning just minutes from seeing an acupuncturist about his ailment.
“Hopefully they can help,” Lee said in an interview at the foundation’s Milpitas service center at 175 Dempsey Road. “In the daytime it’s OK, but once I go to sleep and wake up, it’s very painful,” he said of his leg.
Lee is just one of dozens of people who were visiting the Tzu Chi Foundation Northwest Region Office’s community outreach clinic.
Those coming into the clinic Sunday had the opportunity to get basic services like blood pressure and blood sugar tests, but also eye and dental checkups and treatments, and they could see a chiropractor or acupuncturist, as well.
While the foundation is a Buddhist organization, the periodic outreach clinics serve all people regardless of their religion, ethnicity, or income level, according to Sherry Shih, the foundation’s local spokesperson.
“We serve everyone,” Shih said Sunday. “In our community, there are many people that are short of medical and dental resources.”
The foundation also hosts a dental and acupuncture services clinic at the Milpitas center on
the second and fourth Mondays of every month, for qualifying low-income people.
Shih said many of the clinic’s clients make use of the dental services, because many Californians are without dental insurance. She said even some people who have dental insurance often can’t afford their co-pays, and opt to come to the clinic.
Tomás Tecun, 41, of Milpitas, was waiting outside the mobile dental clinic Sunday, hoping to get a molar that’s been aching pulled out by the dentist.
Tecun came to America from Guatemala around two years ago, he said through Adrián Cerda, a volunteer helping at the clinic, who translated for him.
He is “very thankful” to have a clinic like this in his community, because while he works in construction to support his family, insurance and dental services are simply too expensive for him to afford.
The clinic not only helps people with their medical needs, but it serves to lift their spirits a bit, too.
William Cramer Jr., a volunteer coordinator with The Salvation Army, brought a group of men in a drug rehabilitation program to the clinic for checkups. He called the clinic a “positive thing”
for the men.
“It shows them that there’s others out there that really care. That they want to see them make it in life. This service right here giving to them out of their kindness and compassion, then hopefully that will pass on from them to the next person,” he said.
Ralph Herrera, 45, of Salinas, said he was addicted to drugs for 20 years, and has been clean for four months. He was about to get his eyes and teeth looked at Sunday, and said he was thankful for the services.
“It’s a good, helpful place,” he said.
The foundation relies on volunteers, including medical professionals who give their time and expertise, and others who help at the clinics.
Marisol Durani, 37, of San Jose was volunteering with her husband on Sunday, translating for visitors who speak Spanish. They’ve been helping with Tzu Chi clinics for about two years.
She said the clinic is a very valuable resource.
“You’re kind of providing an open door for all these areas so that individuals know how to take care of themselves for prevention, and so that we have less of a public health concern,” she said.