Deep in the heart of Mexico’s Sierra Madres,
in the town of Creel, the center of Copper Canyon country, is the clinic
of Santa Teresita. The lives of thousands of Tarahumara Indian children
have been saved here because of the dreams and dedication of one man,
Father Luis Verplancken.
Father Verplancken is a Jesuit priest who first visited the Tarahumaras
in the late 1950s. He saw a great need for health care for these Indians
who inhabit this remote area of mountains and canyons. At the time their
children had an alarmingly high mortality rate.
Verplancken put his ideas into action by starting a traveling health
care facility, housed in 4-wheel drive station wagon. He quickly discovered
that a little help went a long way—one dollar’s worth of
penicillin, for example, could treat hundreds of children.
The word spread and by 1964, Verplancken and his volunteers received
enough donations to establish a small hospital in an old railroad warehouse.
The demand for medical care was so great that some Tarahumaras walked
three days from their remote villages to reach the hospital.
A major obstacle that both the town and the hospital faced was the lack
of a dependable water supply. With the help of more donations, a pipeline
was built from the nearest fresh water source, which was four miles away
over extremely harsh terrain. Three handcrafted pumping stations had
to be constructed to lift the water 600 feet up to the level of the town.
For the first time, Creel and the hospital had a dependable supply of
fresh water.
In the mid-1970s, plans were drawn for a more modern hospital. With the
help of his nephew, who was studying architecture at the time, Verplancken
designed what today is known as the clinic of Santa Teresita. This clinic
was literally “hand-made.” Along with a dedicated group of
volunteers, Father Verplancken quarried the stone, crafted the brick
and cut the trees.
The clinic opened in 1979, and houses a seventy-bed hospital with x-ray
and laboratory facilities, a pharmacy, dental facilities and an outpatient
clinic.
Today, it still depends on volunteers and donors. Over 90% of the services
and medications are provided free of cost, and the remainder are provided
to the local residents at a token fee.
Many participants on California Native Copper Canyon trips have visited
the clinic and donated money, medicines and supplies. One woman, after
returning from a recent trip, sent four sets of crutches that she purchased
at a garage sale in the United States.
Click Here for information on our Copper Canyon Tours.
