Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative is making an impact daily on the lives of working, low-income residents in Bergen County. Angela is one of 1,000+ patients that call BVMI their medical home. Hear directly from her how BVMI is helping her live a healthier life. You’ll also learn why BVMI is working to open a second location to provide access to free healthcare in southern Bergen County – and why that is so important!
Read the full transcript:
BVMI provides free healthcare, to people who are working, not earning very much money and don’t have health insurance. We’ve really developed quite a reputation for helping people, people that have nowhere to go, we’ve helped thousands of people get free healthcare, many of whom have never seen a doctor before, health is so much more than just going to the doctor and BVMI really tries to address as many of those factors as we can. And we’re not going to really tackle all of those problems individually. We have to put all of those together when a patient walks through the door.
When I came to BVMI, I don’t have any assistance. I don’t take medicine. We just take something from the pharmacy because sometimes it’s I pay the rent, or I pay the doctor because it’s very expensive.
We think like maybe, maybe I can die tomorrow. Who knows? Because I don’t have any insurance. I don’t have anything.
That’s why when my friend talk about BVMI, and I start seeing the doctors, and they gave me medicine to treat my diabetes. Everything changed, everything changed and, I’m like another totally different person.
I’m more active. I feel more happy, And most important healthy now.
The BVMI team is the most amazing group and is making a difference in our community and in my life.
We have just about a thousand active patients right now, but it’s a drop in the bucket. We are only scratching the surface. There is a whole sector of the county that is underserved, that needs access to healthcare, and we can provide that.
So I received an invitation to come and tour BVMI. I was taken by the mission. And I was taken by the fact that they wanted to open another location, and that location would serve people in the city of Garfield and surrounding areas.
Garfield will benefit by having direct primary care in a model that’s really very unique with a health department, with a food bank, a behavioral health center. It’s kind of one stop shopping for healthcare.
BVMI’s greatest need is good people to help us do what we’re doing.
There are thousands of people who need healthcare. We can provide that health care, but we can’t do it without your help.
We’re trying to serve here 968,000 people in 70 municipalities. The only way we can do it effectively is if we have groups like BVMI that we support in some way through government.
But that we also support personally, when we know that there’s a lot of beautiful people with generous heart, we are really thankful. And I every night I just say, God, thank you for generous people that donate to BVMI,
A lot of the people that we’re talking about serving here are people who will work as hard as they can for their families, husbands, wives, and, and do whatever they can for their families. And sometimes they do that at their own personal expense.
By bringing BVMI to Garfield and into the South Bergen area, we bring opportunity to these people that they did not have before.
