Our medical center serves Cielo, Nazaret and the surrounding communities in Bayona. It houses five ministries — community health, dental care, pediatrics, physical therapy, and psychology. With the dream of providing quality medical and dental care to our neighbors at low cost, we are praying for ongoing partners and volunteers to enhance our growing medical ministry.
The Mary Lynch Budd Children’s Clinic
Staff: Dr. Sara Hidalgo, Mary Esquea, Luz Danny Santana, and Nairobi Vargas Fortuna
This clinic is located inside the Mission Emanuel Medical Center in Cielo. A memorial to Mary Budd, this facility carries on the compassionate work of its namesake. The clinic provides consultations to an average of 125 children and their families weekly. The clinic is open Monday through Friday mornings from 8:30 to 12:30. Consultations are given for 50 pesos (a little over one dollar) and medicines that have been prescribed by the doctor are provided for 5 to 10 pesos a piece.
Mission Emanuel is proud to have been named by the National Public Health Department and UNICEF to administer vaccinations to the children (and often adults) at no cost. Vaccinations provided include tetanus, polio, Hepatitis B and measles, mumps and rubella. Mission Emanuel provides over 1,000 vaccines yearly to children in the schools and the surrounding community.
Dr. Pete Armstrong Dental Clinic
Staff: Roner Capellan, Raquel Silverio, Heidy Caceres, and Larisa Perdomo
The Dental Clinic currently serves the needs of many of the children of the community, including all of the students in our Sponsorship Program. Part of each grade comes to the dental clinic each week to receive information on how to brush and care for their teeth. Afterwards the dentist sees each child individually to provide a teeth cleaning and evaluate their needs. It is very important to teach the children while they are young to care for their teeth and prevent cavities and infection. It has been amazing to see how many three and four-year-old’s mouths are full of cavities and abscessed teeth. These infections can spread throughout the body and eventually prove fatal.
Dr. Mark Johnson, DDS., of Winston-Salem, NC makes the journey to the DR each year and along with personnel from his dental practice staff, operates a week long community dental clinic. They see on average 15 to 20 patients each day. Now, Sharing Smiles, the non-profit service wing of the Advent Health Hospital, has joined us as a strategic partner. The Sharing Smiles team also conducts a clinic and has expanded our outreach capability exponentially. The Dental Clinic was recently enlarged to include 4 chairs and panoramic x-ray capability with the assistance of these wonderful volunteers.
Physical Therapy
Staff: Santa Yuvelis Villar
Mission Emanuel’s Physical Therapy Clinic has been a blessing to special needs children living in the community. Many of the children can come up to three times a week (PT has the same hours as the children’s clinic) and receive physical and occupational therapy in the well-equipped and spacious physical therapy center. Many of the special needs children that are currently being seen have Cerebral Palsy while others have Down’s Syndrome, paralysis, or developmental issues. Yuvelis Villar, our Physical Therapist, was previously employed by the Dominican Association for Rehabilitation (ADR) and had been placed to serve with the mission for years. She is a passionate worker, and now our, dedicated employee who loves the Lord and His children.
Mission Emanuel is very excited about its partnership with both ADR and and our new strategic partner, CAID (Comprehensive Care for Disability) to even better provide excellent treatment to these precious children. A tremendous boost to these efforts and to our partners has been the dedication and commitment by a group of Physical Therapists from Dallas, Texas led by Anna Harper who herself is a veteran of Mission Emanuel’s Short-Term Mission Trips. These volunteers, now joined by PTs from Virginia, New Jersey and more, make the journey each year to work directly with hundreds of children, but they also have been graciously teaching and training PTs from all over the DR in the latest techniques and related medical knowledge.
