This is a translation of the message to the patients of Somos Amigos Centro de Salud in El Narajito. For the list of target communities, click here.
Brothers and sisters:
These are difficult times for all of us. Many of you would like to spend this holy time with family and friends, and you are not able. A terrible and unforgiving illness is moving quickly around the world, and we all must protect ourselves and our neighbors. Like you, I am in my house, where I have been for three weeks.
With our host community of El Naranjito, we have served you, hundreds of patients, for more than twenty years.
Because of the virus, we have had to cancel our April trip. I know you can understand why: we have to protect our volunteers and we have to protect our patients.
But we know there are many of you who depend on us for your medications. You were planning to visit the clinic later this month to see your doctor and get your new medicines.
You have our word that we are doing everything possible to honor our commitment to you. We are doing everything in our power to provide your medicines to you.
We have developed a plan, and I want to share our plan with you for delivering medicines.
These are the rules for patients who will be eligible to receive medicines in order to continue the treatment they are already receiving:
- Only patients who were at the clinic in either October or January can receive medicines in April
- Patients who received six month supply of medicines in January will not receive medicines in April
- Only patients who have their record number (carnet or tarjeta) can receive prescriptions
- Only patients who live in our target zone of thirty communities are eligible
- We will not work with new patients and we cannot help with new medical concerns
- Our primary purpose this month is to refill necessary prescriptions; no new medicines initiated
And so, if you are eligible as I have described, here is the process to request your medicines:
- Please send a Whatsapp message to +1-760-892-1446 and give your record number, from your carnet or card, and also the name of the community where you live.
- Do not send a message to Facebook or Instagram. Only Whatsapp messages sent to the number I provided will be received.
- This number is only valid for this purpose. We will not receive calls or other messages at this number; it is only for our patients to request their medicines.
- Again, in your message, you must provide us the number of your record in our clinic. We are not able to find your number.
- Send your message to WhatsApp before April 15.
After you send us a message, we will confirm your eligibility based on the rules I mentioned before. You will receive a message back from us.
If you are eligible, that is, if you are a regular patient of Somos Amigos, you were at the clinic in October or January, you did not already receive six months of medicines, you live in one of the communities on the list, and if you give us your record number… if all of those apply to you, then we will send your record to the physician you encountered in October or January. Your doctor will review your medicines and recommend what you need based on your history.
Prescriptions will be prepared by workers at our clinic, and they will be safely delivered to communities during the week of April 20. Our patients will not have to leave their communities. We will send you a message with instructions for receiving your medicines.
Thank you for listening to this information. Please, if you know a patient of Somos Amigos who does not have access to this information, please share this announcement with that person. We are all in this situation together, and we have to care for our brothers and sisters.
And for our friends who are not yet patients, please know that once this situation is behind us, we will continue to work on plans that will allow us to serve more of you.
Again, thank you for your attention. Please stay safe in your homes. Follow the guidelines you receive from the government and trusted sources. I will look forward to seeing you again soon.
A hug. Take care of yourselves.