Hundreds Receive Free Medical Care at Tzu Chi Clinic

More than 300 residents were on hand to receive medical and dental help at the Tzu Chi Clinic, a free health fair which was held in the cafeteria of Fresno City College on Saturday.

Volunteer doctors from all over Fresno donated their services, including dental work, chiropractic procedures, acupuncture, blood testing and physical exams. Several other Fresno area clinics were on hand to inform people of their locations and services that they offer.

Organizers of the event, which was held on the FCC campus for a second consecutive year, declared the event a success.  Steven Voon, organizer and volunteer, said the organization achieved its goal to “provide quality care and follow up care for people that have no insurance.”

The Tzu Chi clinic is an organization based in Thailand with offices throughout the world dedicated to providing free healthcare to the needy.

Booths were also available that informed people about the new Affordable Care Act and other services for undocumented residents or low-income families.

Voon said that even though the Affordable Care Act is going into effect, there are still people who “can fall through the cracks and will still need help.”

A legal resources booth for undocumented persons was also available at the exit of the cafeteria.

“We work to help immigrant families get deferred action or some other type of immigrant assistance,” said Jesus Martinez, a worker at the law assistance booth. “We participate in these events because we think that we are probably serving many of the same families that are low-income, families that don’t have medical insurance and some of them have members that could benefit from our immigration services.”

Workers from the law offices say that a lot of the people in need of cheaper health care are also in need of low-priced law help.

“All these agencies give out free information to help the people and it’s mostly undocumented people or people that don’t have insurance,” Rose Ortega, a Cal-Viva Health employee.

Even though the event helped more people this year than last year, organizers would still like to see an expansion of the services at the event next year.

Walter Fung, a volunteer doctor who was a part of the health fair, said he would like to add more resources to make sure that people get better healthcare.

“We do not have all the labs, X-rays and equipment that we need to have. I’ve been wanting them for 12 years,” he said.

Ruben Manzano, a first time attendee of the event, heard of it through word of mouth and was interested in the dental benefits because he doesn’t have health insurance.

“It’s good, very good,” Manzano said, “because people need the help and this is the place where we can come and get the help.”