NGOs provide healthcare services to hard-to-reach communities.
Highlights:
- Mexico’s healthcare system is overstressed, with long wait times, fragmented services, and severe supply shortages, especially in rural areas.
- NGOs play a critical role in providing medical care and services to underserved communities in remote areas of Mexico.
- These NGOs not only deliver healthcare but also contribute to public policy, strengthen community capacities, and ensure the right to health.
- Despite a decrease in Mexico’s poverty rate, extreme poverty remains unchanged, and access to healthcare has worsened, making NGO support more vital.
- The relationship between the Mexican government and NGOs is complex, with NGOs often facing criticism while being essential to addressing the needs of the most vulnerable populations.
The reality is that the healthcare system is inaccessible for many in Mexico. Services are fragmented, wait times are long, and there is a significant shortage of supplies and medications—clear evidence of an overstressed healthcare system. This is common even in Mexico City, where healthcare services are highly concentrated. With this in mind, it is not hard to imagine that the problem could be worse in rural areas, where access is even more limited.
Vaccination is the foundation of public health, and thanks to it, 4.4 million lives are saved worldwide each year.
NGOs, which operate independently of the government and fight for human rights, have made inroads into communities that seem forgotten. One example is Medical Impact. I traveled with them a few weeks ago on one of their medical brigades to the municipalities of La Reforma and Bajos Chila in Oaxaca. The program included various activities such as medical consultations, physiotherapy services, psychological sessions, nutritional care, and dental care. Spirometry tests, ultrasounds, electrocardiograms, glucose, cholesterol, and triglyceride tests, and tests for HIV, hepatitis C, and syphilis accompanied all of this. An essential preventive medicine strategy was also implemented through the vaccination program and the deworming campaign in collaboration with the Secretariat of Health.
This is the reality of Mexico: areas where accessibility, in every sense of the word, is a luxury.
On the way to La Reforma, one of the 570 municipalities in Oaxaca, we traveled on winding roads that left waves of dust behind. Those who were not nauseous told me some communities could only be reached by walking for three hours. This is because there are no roads, just trails. This is the reality of Mexico: areas where accessibility, in every sense of the word, is a luxury. There are no highways, let alone continuous access to healthcare services, telecommunications, or the Internet. Upon arriving at the community of La Reforma, we didn’t even have a cell phone signal.
Although according to the latest report from World Right Watch, the poverty rate in Mexico has decreased from 41.9% in 2018 to 36.3% in 2022, extreme poverty has remained at the same level, and the number of people without access to healthcare services has doubled. In this sense, NGOs, often weakened by government policies, play an essential role in these forgotten communities. Without them, they would likely face even greater neglect. These organizations develop and implement projects and collect data to guide medical care. They also participate in working groups and committees to create public policies, strengthening community capacities.
The poverty rate in Mexico has decreased from 41.9% in 2018 to 36.3% in 2022.
In this context, the relationship between Mexico’s government and NGOs has undoubtedly been contradictory. On one hand, organizations that question the government are criticized. On the other hand, a commitment to the poorest is demanded. This duality has weakened civil society, affecting the most vulnerable people.
NGOs do much more than provide medical care; they are as necessary as healthcare services. They play a crucial role in ensuring the right to health. Their goal is to ensure that decisions consider the perspective of communities, putting the interests of all people on the table. The forgotten ones should not be forgotten. They are overlooked due to the lack of priority in everyone’s agendas. We should support and protect NGOs instead of weakening them, as is already happening in other countries. It is essential if we want a better future for everyone—a more equitable and just future.
