The first Thursday of every month, almost 250 children from low-income families in Mexico flock to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Nogales, Ariz., where they receive free medical treatment.

The church is transformed into a buzzing clinic that seems to drown in chaos. Children scream, volunteers hustle about and parents scurry to keep their spot in line.

Some parents and their children put up with several hours of travel before they even reach the U.S.-Mexico border. They are joined by siblings, aunts, uncles and friends, who help grapple with whichever diagnosis marks the high point of the trip — the visit to the doctor.

About 250 families receive a special one-day visa just to visit the clinic — something that has been maintained despite recent tensions over the U.S.–Mexico border.

St. Andrew’s Children's Clinic has specialists in orthopedics, speech and hearing, cleft/palate surgery and physiotherapy. They offer drug prescriptions, hearing aids, prosthetics and advice on how to make life easier for parents and their children.

An abundance of other volunteers run the clinic away from the spectacle — they prepare and serve food, interpret languages, run logistics and keep track of every patient who receives doctors’ care.

The clinic was founded in 1973 in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico when several parents asked an orthopedist from the United States to help their children, who had cerebral palsy.

The clinic continued to grow and move around. Though orthopedists were the first doctors there, physicians from other professions joined to treat the children’s different ailments.

St. Andrew's orthopedic section

A portrait on one of the first orthopedists at St. Andrew's, and his patient, who went on to become a fellow doctor.





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Physical therapy

Francisco Medina has cerebral palsy and can't sit or walk by himself. Through physical therapy he is able to gain flexibility and strength.



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Contact St. Andrew's Children's Clinic at 520-648-3242 or send an e-mail to office@standrewsclinic.org.
Visit their Web site at standrewsaz.org/clinic.