Description
Los Médicos Voladores is a diverse group of healthcare professionals and volunteers dedicated to improving the health and well-being of the peoples of Mexico and Central American nations by providing free, quality healthcare and health education through short-term clinics in selected villages in Baja and northern Sonora, Mexico; El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras; and the Coachella Valley of California in the United States since 1975. Volunteer pilots fly our teams to Mexico, while LMV volunteers serving all other areas use commercial airliners or ground transportation. LMV clinics help improve the lives of the people we serve not just by treating patients' immediate health problems, but also by providing lasting tools that empower people to help themselves - including health education, especially for women and children, and clinic equipment for ongoing use by local healthcare professionals. LMV also runs a number of non-clinic projects that strengthen the villages we support through initiatives like education sponsorship, wheeled mobility and other equipment donations, and so on. In cooperation with similar organizations like Rotary, Thousand Smiles, Comunidad Para Baja California, and others, LMV also participates in selected infrastructure-strengthening projects in the villages we serve. LMV is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, membership-based organization comprised of four chapters, all entirely volunteer-run and staffed. Three of our chapters are geographically based in northern California and Nevada and operate missions to Mexico: South Bay Chapter (San Jose, CA); Gold Country Chapter (Auburn, CA); and High Sierra Chapter (Truckee, CA and Reno, NV). A fourth, eponymous chapter focuses on Central America, although it is based in San Jose, CA. Our umbrella "corporate" structure, headed by a part-time executive director and a volunteer board of directors, oversees the chapters' work, supporting and guiding our 400-odd members as they organize, run, and evaluate the success of our missions.
