Student club spreads holiday cheer to the needy in Mexico

Residents of towns in the Mexican state of Sonora can always count on free health care and compassion during monthly visits from volunteers with the University of Arizona’s MexZona student-led clinical program.

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This month, they’ll get something extra — a heaping helping of yuletide spirit. 

The club is brightening the season for the community it serves by bringing carfuls of toys for the families who come to the December clinic.

“It’s so moving to see how these toys bring some holiday cheer for the children and their families,” said Daniella Chairez-Pando, a volunteer interpreter who graduated last year from the U of A with a degree in physiology and medical sciences. 

Bringing joy

MexZona is part of the Commitment to Underserved People Program at the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson. The nonprofit has partnered with Rocky Point Medical Clinics and a sister clinic in Sonoyta, Mexico, since 2010, with students from across the health sciences and volunteer clinicians helping those who wouldn’t otherwise have access to medical or dental care.

This is the fourth year MexZona has held a toy drive for clinic patients. Student volunteers noticed how the community center in Rocky Point organized a holiday event to coincide with its last clinic of the year and wanted to join in for a greater impact on residents, said Mina Alaaldin, a second-year PhD student at the U of A R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy and chairman of MexZona’s board.

The club’s emails go out to hundreds of people, but only 30 to 35 students can travel to the monthly clinics, so this was a way to get more people involved, said Alaaldin, who has volunteered for four years. 

“It’s definitely something that the volunteers look forward to just as much as the kids,” she said.

Typically, student volunteers — who are studying health sciences come from the U of A’s Tucson and Phoenix campuses as well as from Arizona State, Creighton and A.T. Still universities — drive to Mexico on Fridays, about a three-and-a-half-hour trip from Tucson. They spend Saturdays working alongside providers like doctors, nurses, dentists and physical therapists, assisting based on their skills. On Sundays, everyone heads back to the United States. 

In December, though, there’s a heck of a postclinic afterparty. 

“It’s always fun,” said Alaaldin.

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Usually about 75 youngsters visit with their families. There’s Santa, of course, music, sometimes line dancing, treats and dozens of unwrapped toys — from stuffed animals to balls and craft kits — that are laid out for the children to take home. Students will even help the kids break in their new basketballs at a hoop at the main clinic.

“They’ll lift the kids up so they can shoot,” Alaaldin said. “It’s really cute.”

Having an impact

Alaaldin and Chairez-Pando both grew up making regular visits to Rocky Point for vacations as kids. Both were stunned to learn that just eight miles from the swanky resorts lining the sandy coastline there is a community full of people who can’t afford health care.

“I was completely oblivious to the difference between the tourist section and the actual local population,” said Alaaldin, who grew up in Chandler. “It was so eye-opening.”

Chairez-Pando, who plans to attend medical school next year and would like to work in rural and underserved communities, said the past few years volunteering as an interpreter with MexZona have been amazing. Families will take the opportunity to practice English, while the students brush up on their Spanish.

“You can see how much of a language barrier there is in medicine,” she said. “You can see a sense of relief on their faces when you start speaking to them in Spanish.”

Regardless of whether it’s December or any other month when there’s a MexZona clinic, Chairez-Pando said, “Volunteering definitely warms your heart.”