Friends of Naco Wellness - Empowering Families

Friends of Naco

Become a Friend of Naco Wellness Initiative

Join us in this fulfilling and timely binational work, dedicated to knowing and supporting our neighbors as friends and colleagues. Share your time and talents with us: Work alongside us in the garden. Help us teach nutrition and cooking classes. Read to the children and tutor them. Help us build expertise and skill in providing health and wellness classes and individual medical care. Donate goods and supplies to the Clinics and the people of Naco.

Support our work financially, contributing on a regular basis to make certain that we are able to provide the promotoras of Naco Wellness with stipends so they can continue their crucial support of the people in their community.

NWI will keep you informed of our new initiatives and progress. We will invite you to special events on both sides of the border. We will welcome you into the Naco Wellness family and share the kindness and love flowing from those involved on both sides of the border.

NWI is a small nonprofit working hard to deliver big benefits in health, education, food production, and social enterprise to the border area. NWI also empowers Naco, Sonora, community leaders, and volunteers to brainstorm and implement their own community solutions.

The need was and continues to be great. The international border region faces many challenges

80% of residents live at the poverty level.
Up to 50% are chronically unemployed, and most jobs provide very low wages.
70% of all residents have diabetes. It’s an epidemic by itself.
60% suffer from asthma, tuberculosis, and other chronic diseases due to the lack of healthy, nutritious food and the high local cost of all food, plus the lack of health care and education, trained medical staff, and supplies.
Less than 50% of all young people graduate from Naco’s high schools.
Pregnant women and children especially lack of good nutrition, medical care, and routine inoculations, dental and eye exams.

Naco’s Great Gifts

U.S. residents who visit NWI’s Casa Saludables Clinics and San Jose Organic Community Garden quickly discover Naco’s great gift: The People and their profuse love for their town and each other, which spills over to anyone who is an Amigo/Friend of Naco Wellness Initiative.

Alongside that is the strong and joyous spirit and rising empowerment of Naco’s women, who seize every opportunity to help their children, families, and town. NWI’s team of Promotoras is female, as are NWI’s Director and Garden Director. The majority of people taking part in programs and services are women, and eventually they bring their men along.

Said NWI Volunteer Mary Cavalier, “Naco is full of empowered and empowering women who want to improve the wellbeing of everyone in their community. They have such joy in doing that, and their neighbors have such joy in receiving that. If you go to Naco, you feel it, too. The joy is contagious.”

NWI Founder and Executive Director Tom Carlson was asked once what he experiences when working in Mexico. His reply turned into this list:

There’s plenty of poverty and pain, and we do have our share of challenging tests and calamities.But these are the things I most think about: Foremost is the sense of Total Familia, which better observers than I have remarked gives family and friends deep feelings of security knowing they are loved and valued because of who they are

Plus . . .