On December 15, 2018 Rotarians from RECSDG along with Rotarians from the Encintas Rotary Club and Tijuana E-club joined forces to bring much happiness to all of the children of the pediatric oncological ward of the Hospital General de Tijuana. Santa Claus came prepared with lots of goodies and gifts for the children.

Many of the children were not able to be seen as they cannot be exposed to others due to their fragile health condition. Some of the children that were there, however, were anxiously waiting for us and were full of smiles when they were sitting on Santa’s lap and receiving a holiday gift. Many of these children come from other parts of Mexico, not only Tijuana, given the limited amount of resources. In some cases there are no hospitals in their villages and they must travel to Tijuana to receive treatment.

The ward can host up to 18 families and allows these children who are receiving treatment to be housed there alongside their parents. Often times depending on the stage of their infirmity some do not make it very long. Some of us were able to meet with a woman who had traveled from the Yucatan with her daughter who unfortunately had passed away a day earlier due to an aggressive stage 4 cancer.

The shelter helps these families who often times have no access to help. The shelter is sustained through kind donations from various groups and welcomes further partnership with Rotary. Currently, the hospital works in tandem with many practitioners from St. Jude’s and has done a lot of outreach with other research facilites in San Diego.