This week, La Clínica opened its doors to local families for a Posada and gift giveaway. Children received gifts, and families celebrated the winter season with food and song.

Gifts were donated by KPMG LLP, River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation, the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, All Souls Church and several other local and national organizations. The Posada has been held for over two decades, a traditional way for La Clínica to celebrate with its community during this festive season.

"The image and symbol of Mary and Joseph looking for a safe shelter, or posada, is resonant for our immigrant community," explained Executive Director Alicia Wilson. "As we welcome newcomers and those who have endured great hardships to arrive in this country, we truly have a great deal to celebrate."

Latinos make up only 15% of the total U.S. population, but represent 19% of new AIDS diagnoses in 2007. Latinos are more likely to experience late diagnosis of HIV and late entry to care, which accelerates the onset of AIDS. By the end of 2007, over 80,000 Latinos with AIDS had died.

"World AIDS Day provides us with an opportunity to stop, reflect, and celebrate the lives of so many members of our community who have lived with HIV and AIDS," said Catalina Sol, Chief Programs Officer. "Many are no longer with us, and many continue to struggle day by day with stigma and discrimination. We hope our activities will bring light to the lives of so many Latinos living with HIV, who are often invisible."

La Clínica offered free counseling and testing on site, as well as street outreach awareness activities throughout the day in the Columbia Heights neighborhood.

The day ended with a program of reflection and celebration, including a candlelight vigil walk around the neighborhood to remember those affected by the AIDS epidemic.

Last Saturday, to prepare its patients for the coming holiday season, La Clínica del Pueblo gave away 100 boxes of food to families in need. The boxes, prepared and distributed by Project GiveBack, contained two weeks worth of food, including a Thanksgiving turkey.

This was the second year of La Clínica's participation in the food-giveaway program. Last year, 50 boxes were given away, but this season, Project GiveBack wanted to double the numbers. The organization reached out to La Clínica and its patients because they feel that the Latino community is underserved in the DC area.

"[Project GiveBack] wants to help people in need and they've recognized there's a large number of Latino families that other charities might have missed," said Zed Cherrix, a volunteer with Project GiveBack.

La Clínica was one of four satellite locations giving away the donated food. Cherrix said he hopes La Clínica and Project GiveBack can continue to partner to help make Thanksgiving a special time for all needy families.

"Hunger for poor families is a huge thing," said Cherrix. "Thanksgiving is a time for families who are fortunate to have food to give back to the community."

On Friday, October 30th, La Clínica del Pueblo graduated its first group of trained medical interpreters as a part of its Language Access for All program--all bilingual health care professionals from DC. 

Over ten percent of people in the DC metro area have limited English proficiency. Very few doctors and care providers are trained bilingual medical staff, which can create a divide between patients and their providers. La Clínica currently provides medical interpretation to all Limited English Patients of all community-based health care centers in the District. With this training, funded by the Chronic Care Initiative from the DC Department of Health, La Clínica hopes to increase the capacity of those facilities to better serve their limited-English patients.

On October 18th, Health Promoters from La Clínica del Pueblo participated in Telemundo's Feria de la Familia (Family Fair) at the DC Armory. Despite the rainy weather, the fair drew a large crowd with musical performances and a raffling off of a brand new car.

The Health Promoters were able to screen over 450 individuals for high blood pressure, offering dietary and exercise counseling to all and referring individuals with elevated blood pressure to local community health centers for care. It was an exhausting day for the Health Promoters, but one well worth the effort. The event was one of 26 events this year in which the Health Promoters provided community screening and counseling sessions to the Latino community in order to promote better nutrition, physical activity and the use of primary health care services.

La Clínica del Pueblo is proud to share a recent study of our Health Fairs and Promotores de Salud (Health Promoters) programs. La Clínica is committed to continually improving the health of the Latino community through our innovative outreach efforts aimed at creating healthy behavioral changes and increasing access to health care services.

We thank Lara Kostun for her critical review of the program and her insightful recommendations.

"I know there are many people, many poor people who need information..." said Maldonado, a part-time health promoter at La Clínica. "When we give them information, it's like they are opening their eyes, and saying ‘Yeah, I have to take care of myself.'"

Maldonado moved to the US from Ecuador about 12 years ago with her husband and children. The decision came to move after her family spent some time in the US.

"We came once for six months and he [my husband] wanted to come back..." said Maldonado with a laugh. "And now we are living here."

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Health reform has become a hot topic in the national dialogue and La Clínica is adding its voice to the debate. Current proposed reforms may help native-born Americans, but many immigrant patients could still face barriers to care. Legal residents would still have to wait five years to enroll in Medicaid and undocumented immigrants would most likely not be able to benefit from federal subsidies to help pay for insurance.

Through advocacy in Letters to the Editor and work with national coalitions, La Clínica has strived to communicate that health care is a human right and reform should create a truly accessible health care system for all people in this country.

Even with its limitations, reform can benefit members of the La Clínica community. First, patients would have more access to health insurance and to a wider range of programs and specialty services. An expansion of the Medicaid program would help more uninsured patients get health coverage, as well as provide more services for some of those on DC's Alliance health care.  

Last weekend, La Clínica hosted a health fair in the Rhode Island Home Depot in Northeast, a popular hangout for day laborers waiting for work. The fair provided over 80 people with health services and included different representatives from local Latino organizations, like Sergeant Carlos Mejia, the Latino Liaison for the DC Police Department.

More of a "bare bones" health fair, without its mobile units, participants were able to check their blood pressure, find out their body mass index and participate in an optional HIV test. There were also charlas, or educational talks, on cancer and nutrition. After going through the fair, participants received referrals to La Clínica or other clinics. Health promoters will call patients after a few days to make sure they followed-up on these referrals.

Michael Dalious, Health Fairs Program Coordinator, said that La Clínica wanted to hold a health fair targeted at day laborers because they do not have consistent work and therefore, few resources to take care of their health.

"There are about 100 guys who wait here everyday for work," said Dalious. "They are part of our target population, they don't have access to health care, they don't have stable work...We are just trying to connect them to services for preventative care."