Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – Have you or a family member ever been in chronic, knuckle-biting, tear-streaming pain or suffered from a disability? If not, then you have been very lucky. The World Health Organization estimates that an estimated 2.4 billion people are currently living with a health condition that would benefit from rehabilitation. That’s one in three people worldwide.
In Puerto Vallarta, life can be debilitating and dangerous. Anyone who has watched in open-mouthed astonishment as buckets of heavy concrete are lifted by hand from the street to a construction site floor knows that the odds of a crippling accident happening are only a few threads of rope away. Even just walking along the roads and sidewalks can be hazardous here. “Look down, or fall down” is the city’s motto!
We might need rehabilitation if we were born with a childhood disease, such as cerebral palsy, or need it following an injury, surgery, illness, or just because we deteriorate as we get older. The good news is that rehabilitation helps a person be as independent as possible in everyday activities. It does so by assisting them to overcome difficulties with thinking, seeing, hearing, communicating, eating or just moving around.
Four months ago, in November 2021, the Santa Barbara Rehabilitation Clinic (SBRC) celebrated forty years of offering love and rehabilitation services to the people of Puerto Vallarta. The organization was formed and financed in 1981 by the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce in Puerto Vallarta and three Rotary Clubs in PV’s sister city of Santa Barbara, California. The goal of SBRC was then, and is now, to improve the quality of life of low-income children and adults with disabilities.
Like most charitable organizations in Puerto Vallarta, the SBRC receives no government funding and relies entirely on donations, fundraisers and the low schedule of fees charged to patients who can afford to pay. The International Friendship Club (IFC) has supported the SBRC for over twenty years, and its members are happy to know that its money helps pay for the clinic’s annual operating costs.
However, SBRC needs more funds. Much of the therapeutic equipment used to help patients is now very old and obsolete, and the clinic also needs to replace its exercise beds.
The need for high-quality rehabilitation services in Puerto Vallarta will continue to grow. People are living longer, and the number of people over 60 years of age is predicted to double by 2050. More people will be living with chronic diseases such as diabetes, stroke and cancer, while the ongoing incidence of injury and child developmental conditions persist.
Pain and disability can change lives, and eradicating or alleviating them can do the same.
Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, knew a thing or two. He said, “The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.”
Written by John Warren of the International Friendship Club.
The International Friendship Club is a registered charitable organization in Mexico listed as Club Internacional de la Amistad de Puerto Vallarta A.C. It is located at the northeast corner of the Rio Cuale Bridge above the HSBC Bank, Colonia El Centro, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, 48300. Phone: 322-222-5466. Website: ifcvallarta.org Email: info(at)ifcvallarta.org