Cruz Roja Mexicana (Mexican Red Cross), Tijuana Chapter offers assistance focusing on the transportation of patients in need of emergency care. In 2005, Cruz Roja- Tijuana chapter responded to 37,084 calls tending to the needs of the entire city of Tijuana.

The rapid population growth in the outskirts of Tijuana, is posing challenges to the efficiency and promptness with which the Cruz Roja Mexicana can respond. To improve coverage, Cruz Roja Mexicana is carrying out a fundraising campaign to build and equip an ambulance station in the area of El Florido Industrial Park; one of the fastest growing regions east of the Tijuana metropolis that houses over 50,000 maquiladora working families. It is estimated that in 2006, the Cruz Roja Mexicana, Tijuana chapter, will have to assist over 40,000 emergency calls from El Florido alone.

Cruz Roja Mexicana's Needs:

• Two ambulances: $60,000 per ambulance

Cruz Roja Contact information: Nayeli Garcia, Executive director at direcciongeneral@cruzrojatijuana.org.mx.
Visit their website at http://www.cruzrojatijuana.org.mx/

Patronato Hospital General Tijuana, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

Recognizing the growing needs of Tijuana's General Hospital, a group of Tijuana's leading female civic leaders came together to form the Hospital's first voluntary auxillary unit and trust fund, otherwise known as "the patronato." The objectives of the Patronato Pro Hospital Civil de Tijuana are to:

• Provide the best attention to the most needy patients.
• Maintain the necessary facilities in a dignified manner.
• Achieve confidence and credibility for the institution.

The Patronato's Needs

• Internal medicine: $50,000 for total supplies
• Equipment of one emergency room for adults: $80,000
• Equipment for a pediatric emergency room: $120,000

The Patronato's contact information: Elsa Villanueva de Prieto at hospital_general@hotmail.com

Fronteras Unidas Pro Salud, A.C., Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

Fronteras Unidas Pro Salud (Pro Salud) is the result of a partnership between Mexfam (a respected Mexican family planning organization) and Planned Parenthood of San Diego & Riverside Counties. As a nonprofit organization that provides high-quality, low-cost reproductive healthcare and education to families throughout Baja California, Pro Salud reaches out to underserved groups—mainly youth and the poor—making it easy for them to access the services they need. The mission of Fronteras Unidas Pro Salud is to provide basic and reproductive healthcare, and sexual and reproductive education for families in the impoverished, rural and urban areas of Baja California, and to enable women and men to manage their own reproductive health and the health of their children. Pro Salud's goal is to promote better health, better lives, and a better future for generations of Mexicans to come.

Fronteras Unidas Pro Salud's Needs:

• The building of a specialized medical and educational center for sexual and reproductive health: $750,000.

Fronteras Unidas Pro Salud's contact information: Marcela Martinez at direcciongeneral@pro-salud.org Visit their website at http://www.pro-salud.org/index2.html

The Foundation for the Children of the Californias was established in 1990, when a group of professionals realized that Baja California was the only state in Mexico bordering on the United States without a full-service pediatric hospital, despite the fact that 43% of its population is under 19 years of age. Its objective is to improve the health and nutrition of the border region’s children in Southern California and Mexico.

The Foundation for the Children of the Californias' Needs:

A campaign to collect 110 million pesos (US$10 million) to build the next stage of the Hospital Infantil de las Californias. The new building will include an emergency room, 3 surgery rooms, 35 hospital beds, special care, parents waiting room, a chapel, gift shop, play areas and an ecological garden, an educational program and an endowment. The expenses are broken down in the following manner:

• Construction costs associated with the Hospital's next stage: $5 million
• Medical equipment: $4 million
• Educational programs: $66,000 annually
• Program to provide care for indigent patients: $144,000 annually

Foundation for the Children of the Californias contact information: Denise McGregor at denisem@usfcc.org.
Visit their website at http://www.usfcc.org/index.php