Physician with more than 25 years of experience working with underserved and marginalized populations in the US/Mexico border region, 2012 postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Global Public Health UCSD), 2014 to present Founder and Director of the Wound Clinic/ Clinica de Heridas and Casa del Centro Tijuana.

Background
The drug war in Mexico is one of the most violent on the globe with cartel and militarism activities affecting many levels of economy and society. Tijuana, a border city in Mexico, situated on a major drug trafficking route towards the United States. An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people who use inyectable substance live in Tijuana. Tijuana was listed the second deadliest city with 105 homicides/100,000 in a citiy with about 2.2 million people.

Setting:
Clinica Wound provides street harm reduction services to people who use substances on the streets of Tijuana. Outdated Health and social services norms and practices create environments that enable cruelty and barriers to treatment leaving people who use substances institutionally and socially isolated.

Project:
Wound Clinic initiated in 2014 to foster and create safe spaces for people who use drugs with ‘circles of knowledge, rituals and collective art’, integrating client autonomy, harm reduction principles and liberation medicine. The goal is to promote dignity, respect for human’s rights, and communities free of violence. To connect people with harm reduction services and uphold the autonomy. to help debunk the existing moralism of patriarchal beliefs in the health system, integrating street medicine knowledge to new generations of health professionals.. Clinica Wound teach evidence-based facts about drugs and conduct open education spaces that are inclusive of the voices of people who use drugs to help demystify assumptions about moral versus immoral and health versus disease.

Outcome
Despite Tijuana violent enviroment challenges, the once a month street clinic sessions and circles have promoted empowerment and solidarity among people who use drugs and volunteers and community members as well as strengthening their connection with harm reduction services. 8400 persons have received harm reduction services, 300 women and 120 medical students have been positively influenced through these approaches.