A Day in the Life of a Medical/Dental Unit [] Patronato Pro Niños

Published January 25, 2021

San Miguel De Allende is home to many families who face day-to-day challenges in accessing adequate medical care for their children. We go to them.

There are over 500 outlying communities throughout the municipality of San Miguel de Allende. Thanks to our generous donors’ support, we visit the most remote communities of our municipality.

The children we provide services to have no access to healthcare or dental care in their communities. Our medical/dental mobile units provide treatment and education to thousands of children who would not have access to medical or dental treatment otherwise.

Our medical/dental units have two distinct areas, one configured for dental consultations and the other for medical consultations. The fully equipped units have all the working instruments found in any medical or dental office. Our Dentists and Doctors travel every day to remote locations in the mobile units.

Come along to discover a “Day in the Life” of a medical-dental unit. 

By promoting good health and oral hygiene, by providing necessary medical and dental care, by working with other health care providers as advocate and funding source, we help children from economically disadvantaged families in San Miguel de Allende lead healthier, fuller lives. And we’ve been doing this for 45 years. We now see second and third generations of the same family. These families trust Pro Niños.  And we’ve earned that trust by helping literally thousands and thousands of children through the years. With your help, we will continue this tradition and add to the many programs we already have in place.

Please donate now so that more children may THRIVE.

Click to donate NOW!

Founded in 1970, Pro Niños was able to provide medical care to only 20 children in our first year of operation. Since then, we have grown in size and scope so that we now provide dental care to over 9,000 children, and medical care to 2,500 children in and around San Miguel de Allende. In total, we give more than 23,000 treatments a year. To serve these children, we have on staff four dentists, a doctor, a full time social worker and eight support staff.   We are accredited in Mexico as a charitable, non-profit organization (Asociación Civil), registered in the Federal Registry and awarded with tax exemption status. We are also incorporated in the United States as a 501 (c)(3) under the name “FTC International, Inc.” to accept U.S grants and individual donations.   All Mexican children from birth to 16 years of age who do not receive medical care from private insurance or social security benefits are eligible for our medical and dental care programs. It is estimated that 44,000 children fall into the 0-to-16-year-old category. Less than 15% receive social security benefits, leaving many without adequate medical care. We coordinate our services with two Mexican government programs (Seguro Popular and Nueva Generación) and fill some much-needed service gaps. Dental care, for other than the middle and upper-economic class, is nonexistent.   To preserve dignity and promote parental involvement with necessary follow-up care, families are asked to participate in the cost of their child’s care according to their ability, which in many cases is as little as ten pesos.   Every morning at 7:30, our three mobile dental vans depart San Miguel to visit some of the hundreds of villages needing dental services. Teachers, parents and children often meet our dentist and her assistant/driver at the entrance of the village. In a typical day, our dentists are able to dispense 25-30 treatments and the vans will return to the village for as long as it takes to serve every child.   The medical and dental care we provide can dramatically change lives and in some cases, even save lives. Once we have determined an individual child’s needs, we work closely with medical providers – as advocate and funding source – to make sure the child gets the best care possible.   On any given day in the clinic, our doctor treats as many as 20 children directly and refers others to specialists and various service providers as needed. The doctor also conducts follow-up to ensure that the children receive the required care from outside service providers. The in-clinic dentist treats an average of 15 children per day; those whose villages are not being visited by the mobile vans.   The Mexican Government, recognizing that Pro Niños fills gaps in the health services provided to citizens, provides support through grants of various amounts from various departments.  Other funds are raised through donations from members, local residents, and visitors to San Miguel. We also receive additional funding from other active charities in San Miguel and from foundations.