What, ME Blog?: Giving Back

Mexico is a very poor country in many places....VERY poor.

Devastatingly poor.

Mexico poor make our poor look middle class.....

There are many opportunities to help in Mexico.

You could help daily by just handing a few pesos to a beggar (thousands of opportunities for that)

There are a large number of American supported charities also.

Flying Samaritans is a group of Americans and Mexicans dedicated to

providing free healthcare to those in Mexico who cannot afford it.

This group is made up of a variety of healthcare professionals

(doctors, nurses, dentists, etc.) They all volunteer their time freely for weekend clinics in

rotating areas of the Baja California peninsula to provide their services.

Even if you have no healthcare back ground you can volunteer to help with

clerical or translation stuff

There is a group of people who also donate time, food, clothing and blankets to the homeless population at the Tijuana canal along the border. A lot of these men and women are deportees who are now stranded in limbo due to lack of identification or resources. There is a church and volunteer group that offer them

showers, food, temporary shelter, computer to check email and phone to call family that at many time does not even know where they are.

Then there are the children of Tijuana who have done nothing other than chanced to be born

into a drug addicted family situation.

There are several orphanages in Tijuana, Otay and Tecate that help these children.

Leigh became involved last year with one of the orphanages that a friend of ours is active with.

She wrapped dozens of gifts for their Christmas party in December

Judy, Leigh's inspiration and friend of ours

Riding a fire truck with kids


Fast friends despite a bit of a language barrier at times!

So yesterday, she helped Judy make about 50 sandwiches and then spent the night with Judy before we all drove up to the barrio, where the orphanage is located, and accompanied them to the interactive museum in Tijuana, El Trompo. The museum was cool and the kids had a great time!

When we got to the orphanage, the kids were hugging Leigh and calling "Hola Leigh!"

She was able to converse with them minimally in Spanish and introduce her 'madre' and 'hermano'

to the kids. The goal of today was to let these kids just play all day at the museum and

also it was a fundraiser to raise money to send the kids to a great private school.

Before the event, they had enough money to send 3 kids for a full year.

I'm betting that after today's event, quite a few more will be able to go!