San Francisco Fire Department Ambulance Service Leads Volunteers to Help Thousands of Patients in El Salvador

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Carlos Martinez and his 12-year-old son check in at San Francisco International Airport for their Saturday flight to El Salvador.

“We are going to a place called Takachiko and another place called San Julian. These are very rural areas, people have almost no access to medicines or any kind of medical care. Some people have never seen a doctor there in their lives,” says Martinez. .

Martinez works as an ambulance technician for the San Francisco Fire Department. He leads 70 volunteers of the Castaneda Children’s Fund. They will provide free medical care in rural areas of El Salvador. Five other volunteers are also from the San Francisco Fire Department.

“We provide general medicine. We don’t do any operations. We have a dentist. We have women’s health. Martinez said.

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Within the next week they will serve 3,000 patients. Martinez says diabetes, hypertension and hygiene are the three biggest problems they will be tackling, adding that poor sanitation is the main cause of poor hygiene.

“It’s very humid here, a lot of mosquitoes and other vector-borne diseases are spreading around, and the problem with water is definitely. Because of this, we see a lot of people with intestinal parasites,” he said.

Martinez says the goal is to treat people as well as educate them so people can take better care of their health.

This is their first medical trip in three years due to the pandemic. This way they know that the need for care will be great once they hit the ground.

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“We have what people call ‘first world problems’ where the iPhone charger doesn’t work far enough or the passcode doesn’t work. There it’s “Hey, I don’t have food for a week.” Or: “I don’t have water.” Or “The roof has come off and we have no way to fix it,” he said.

It took hundreds of hours of planning and coordination to get the program up and running. They will also provide scholarships so students can go to school and distribute food to those in need.

Martinez says it could be an equally important experience for volunteers.

“If you have never left the country. If you’ve never seen poverty, it absolutely changes your life,” Martinez said.

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