Dr. Lupita Cevallos is assembling the volunteers and the resources to make it happen
Dr. Lupita Cevallos is assembling the volunteers and the resources to make it happen
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic. Dr. Lupita Cevallos has launched a project to build a low-cost hospital on land she plans to donate. Her vision is a local hospital managed and staffed by local Lakeside people to provide anyone who needs it with the best care but at a lower price than the existing private hospitals charge.
“Hospitals are too expensive in Ajijic,” Dr. Cevallos told Laguna in a telephone interview, “Many people postpone treatment or forgo it because they can’t afford it. She says she thinks that there is enough experience and expertise in the local community to build and manage a private hospital.
Dr. Cellavos, who is known throughout Lakeside as a horsewoman and for her activism and devotion to the less fortunate in the community runs her own practice in Riberas and works on community projects including a Christmas gift distribution on her ranch to poor children
The idea for a low-cost hospital came to her when she began receiving offers of high-end medical equipment from friends in the medical and hospital communities in the US and Mexico. She cited one example of a doctor friend in Arizona, USA, who offered her a tomography machine. She said that having this equipment available for everyone here at a low price would be an advantage because the IMMS clinic does not have this kind of equipment.
She began assembling a project team of architects who are working on blueprints and drawings needed for permit application. Her initial cost estimates are in the area of $3 million pesos, some of which she will raise by selling land she owns near her ranch above the Libramiento. But she plans to raise other funds.
At this time, she is assembling a larger volunteer team and encouraging donations of supplies and construction materials and workers. Specifically, she is soliciting volunteers with construction skills, construction materials, and legal advice to help her transfer land to the hospital project. She estimates that it will take less than a year to assemble the full team and to obtain the permits and enough funds to get site preparation and building underway, and another year to finish construction. She is also looking for a volunteer with construction project management skills to take over the day to day running of the project.
Anyone who wishes to get involved should contact Dr. Lupita Cevallos at 33 1229 6265 or message her on her Facebook Page.
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