Community for Children’s fundamental commitment is to training a new community of physicians dedicated to the vision of a world where all children have the right to enjoy the highest attainable level of health, as outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; the vision of a world where communities join together in partnership to assure that all children and adolescents attain their fullest potential; and to the vision of a world of hope for the most vulnerable and poorest of our children.
At the Border and Beyond
Community for Children – At the Border and Beyond begins at the junction of Texas’s Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) and Northern Mexico, including the cities of Ciudad Victoria and Matamoros. The LRGV is one of the most medically underserved and impoverished areas in the U.S. Major cities include Brownsville, Harlingen, and McAllen on the U.S. side. Poverty is a way of life for many of the children living on both sides of the border of Mexico and Texas.
Senator Eliot Shapleigh spent three days each with CfC faculty and students during the October/November 2012 and February/March 2013 rotations holding meetings with community groups on how to address social justice issues on the Texas/Mexico border through policy-making and the legislative process. Shapleigh served as a Texas senator through seven legislative sessions, authoring more than 600 bills, with emphasis on education, health care, economic development, infrastructure, technology and veterans affairs. He is the managing partner of the Shapleigh Law Firm, PC and currently resides in El Paso, Texas.
