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“I love the way they help people who are not English speaking. They take care
of all the details and follow up with us.”
Comments like this – posted on Facebook and Google reviews – reflect the appreciation and loyalty of patients of the Muslim Community and Health Center on Milwaukee’s South Side.
MCHC started in 2004 as a free clinic staffed by volunteer physicians. Today it serves 3,000 to 4,000 patients a year with a staff of 15 and volunteers. Free and low-cost services available to anyone, Muslim or not, include health care (including an on-site lab), social services, behavioral health counseling, emergency assistance, education and job training programs, and a community garden.
“Our guiding principles are based on the Muslim values of compassion, kindness, peace and diversity,” says Arman Tahir, director of operations. Roughly 50 percent of MCHC’s clients are immigrants or refugees, in the past from Southeast Asia and the Middle East, more recently from Burma and Somalia. Resources targeted to immigrants are available in eight languages.
“We want to help them emerge into the culture of this country, yet we don’t want them to lose their language,” Tahir says.
