This story is part of our Summer 2021 Newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here.
MATAMOROS, MEXICO is a city located on the Mexico-United States border and the receiving site for many individuals seeking asylum who have been sent back from the United States while they await their immigration hearings. Although the Biden administration altered Trump-era immigration and asylum policies to allow more asylum seekers into the United States, the camp is still populated with many individuals.
The Matamoros camp was originally established with no access to food, water, sanitation, or basic medical care or hygiene. Global Resource Management (GRM), an international medical nonprofit organization, has operated a medical clinic in Matamoros to help meet these needs. In the fall of 2020, Global Disaster Response (GDR) dispatched a team to support GRM’s work in Matamoros.
On May 3, 2021, many of the same individuals re-deployed to continue this work. The team consisted of MGH Global Nursing Director Mary Sebert, RN, MPH, Global Disaster Response and Humanitarian Action (GDRHA) Director Lindsey Martin, NP, GDRHA Deputy Director Kristen Giambusso, MPH, Annekathryrn Goodman, MD, MS, MA, MPH, and Lynn Black, MD, MPH. The team helped treat over 100 patients a day in the camp, expanding the manpower at GRM’s field clinic. This second deployment alongside GRM continues the Global Disaster Response and Humanitarian Action’s commitment to supporting immigrant communities at our borders and within our communities.
GDRHA has also supported India amidst the subcontinent’s COVID-19 surge which began in mid-March. GDRHA worked closely with MGH Global Medicine Resident Pooja Yerramilli, MD, MPH, to devise a response, collaborated with Direct Relief and Mission Oxygen to provide a support, and is partnering with Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi to provide clinical volunteers to provide virtual case counseling. Read more and find out how you can support these efforts here.
