© 2024 90.7 WMFE. All Rights Reserved.
Public Media News for Central Florida
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The little mobile medical unit that could: a mosque, a donated ambulance, and a dream

Photo: American Muslim Community Center
Photo: American Muslim Community Center

The need for free healthcare is on the rise as the pandemic continues and the cost of everything from food to housing has become unaffordable for some. 

Back in 2017, the American Muslim Community Center opened a free mobile clinic with the goal of providing medical and dental care to people in need. As WMFE’s Danielle Prieur reports, these days, demand has increased by around 450 percent. 

Atif Fareed is sweating heavily in his gray polo with the American Muslim Community Clinics' logo on it which looks like a tiny heart monitor. 

It’s well over 100 degrees in the sun, and Fareed, the clinic’s director, is walking around greeting volunteers before hundreds of waiting cars start streaming into the Bithlo Church of God parking lot on Orlando’s east side. 

He stops into the mobile unit briefly. 

"All the blood pressure, you know, blood pressure, everything we have everything in here, there's nothing we don't have."

Fareed says the mobile unit was built out of an ambulance donated by the city of Sanford in 2017. It makes stops at local churches and homeless centers where volunteer doctors and nurses provide free medical, dental and mental health care to anyone in need.

The clinic keeps a stockpile of free medicines and even glasses for their patients who are mostly uninsured and in some cases undocumented. 

"You have to have a pulse. It’s the only requirement. If you have a pulse, we will see you."

Fareed says many of these patients also struggle with transportation and homelessness so they might only see them once for a quick checkup and then never again. But others like Kodjo Tchaye, are returning patients. 

"So I had been, I have been seeing doctors here since mid-2019. And I always have my medical needs met. The nurses and the doctors, they do their very best to meet my medical needs, as well as my dental needs, and they put their heart in the job."

Tchaye, who works part-time at FedEx, isn’t insured and relies on the clinic to get most of his health care needs met. 

Physician’s assistant Melissa Molina is one of a team of volunteers who provides Tchaye with care. She splits her time between a private medical practice and the clinic. As a bilingual speaker, she can provide care in both English and Spanish.

"Honestly, I feel like patients are actually more grateful. And I feel a little bit also more fulfillment when I take care of what I see, like is a real need."

Molina says that even before the pandemic, people were going to emergency rooms for care because they couldn’t afford anywhere else, but she says the pandemic, along with rising inflation and an affordable housing crisis are forcing more people to seek care at ER’s. 

Hospitals like AdventHealth have recognized the need for clinics like this one that provide accessible healthcare, and have donated free blood work and equipment. 

Director Atif Fareed says the clinic might have begun at the Longwood mosque but it has now expanded far beyond.

"And it’s faith in action. We're trying to put our faith in action by serving people in this community. We belong to this community and anybody who is in Central Florida is part of my family, and I gotta take care of them."

Fareed says he doesn’t see the need for this free clinic slowing down anytime soon. In fact, he’s in talks with another health system possibly interested in helping. 

To make an appointment or to learn more, click on the link.

Danielle Prieur is WMFE's education reporter.