Hundreds in Valley Attend Free Clinic
More than 150 volunteers from across the U.S. and Canada teamed up to provide residents with free medical, dental and social services on Blythe Street.
Maritza de Artan had heard about her Panorama City neighbors who didn’t know where to get medical services because they had no insurance or money to see a doctor.
She dreamed about getting them help, and after a lot of networking, she turned the dream into reality. On Sunday, hundreds of Valley residents gathered for the second time in the 14600 block of Blythe Street to receive free medical services from the Buddhist Tzu-Chi Free Clinic.
“This is something else,” said De Artan, director of the Immaculate Heart Community Blythe Street, a nonprofit community organization. “I can’t believe it. A lot of these people are not only poor, they live below poverty level.”
De Artan learned about the free clinic in December while searching for nonprofit organizations to donate toys to area children. Soon, free clinic officials told her they could offer more than toys. In January, they converted two apartments into a temporary clinic.
“This time it’s much bigger,” she said. “We must have at least 1,000 people.”
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