Mabuhay Health Center

Mabuhay Health Center (MHC) strives to empower communities, foster the educational development of student volunteers, and bridge gaps in access to health care and resources by providing comprehensive and culturally sensitive services. MHC is a volunteer-run organization that provides free health care resources to the people of San Francisco. Our main service is a free community health clinic that operates in San Francisco’s South of Market (SoMa) district at the Bayanihan Community Center. Since an overwhelming majority of MHC’s patients are elderly Filipinos, cultural sensitivity entails navigating around hiya (a sense of embarrassment particular to Filipino cultures) and having volunteers on-site who are fluent in Filipino dialects (to facilitate health education and to encourage conversations – rather than monologues and misunderstandings – about personal health). We also tailor the content of health education workshops for youth such that our presentations make sense within the contexts of Filipino American culture and the South of Market community.