San Francisco Fire Emergency Medical Technician Carlos Martinez will lead a six-person SFFD medical team to help those in need in El Salvador

San Francisco, CA – On February 19th, the Castañeda Kids Foundation, along with six San Francisco Emergency Medical professionals, will depart to El Salvador to help the people of El Salvador.

The foundation has four main focuses: Nutrition, Education, Health, and Sports. For nutrition, we provide holiday food baskets for 500 families. For education, we provide 70 scholarships for kids to attend school who would otherwise not be able to afford it. For health, we do our annual medical mission and provide free medical care for those with little to no access. For sports, we provide sports equipment, including uniforms, cleats, basketballs, volleyball, and soccer balls. We have also helped build/ improve soccer fields, basketball courts, and volleyball courts.

Our upcoming medical mission starts on February 19th to the 26th. Seventy volunteers from across the U.S., including Doctors, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, RNs, Pharmacists, Paramedics, EMTs, ER Techs, ER scribes, interpreters, and non-medical personnel, have a goal of seeing and treating 3,000 patients in 5 clinic days (Monday-Friday)

Before the medical mission arrives, a point of contact at each location has spread the word throughout the villages that there will be a medical mission on the dates provided. On the day of the clinic, using buses hired by the foundation, the patients are picked up from their homes and designated meeting points and brought to the clinic location. After they are seen, treated, and dispensed the appropriate medications, they are transported back to their respective areas. In addition to free medical care and medications, the foundation also provides educational classes for hygiene, hypertension, diabetes, and other topics related to the needs of the given population.

As part of the 70-person team, six San Francisco Fire Department members from our EMS Station 49 will be assisting. Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Carlos Martinez, Paramedic Shannon Stabile, Paramedic Sean Lavelle, EMT John Hernandez, EMT Kelly Cronander, and EMT Hoi-Kit Cheung.

While on this Mission, the SFFD will provide daily updates, pictures, and videos on our Facebook Page.

The Foundation’s social sites are Instagram: @tckfoundation Facebook: @CastanedakidsFoundation