Ford Expands Its Salud Sobre Ruedas Program.

Ford Motor Company’s Salud Sobre Ruedas (Health on Wheels) program expands and strengthens its social and community commitment through 2007 by donating 25 additional 15-passenger Econoline vans to local Hispanic healthcare clinics across America.

The Salud Sobre Ruedas program, which debuted in 2000, helps Hispanic families and others in need to obtain roundtrip transportation to healthcare centers. The program aims to encourage regular health check-ups for early detection and prevention of diseases and ailments that most affect the Hispanic population, like breast cancer and diabetes.

“With the overwhelming success of the Salud Sobre Ruedas, we are pleased to continue and expand our commitment for another four years,” Steve Lyons, President, Ford Division. “Since the program’s inception, it has been our goal to maintain those
ideals that people have come to expect from Ford Motor Company throughout the last 100 years; to give back to the community from which we have benefited.”

Econoline vans were first donated in 2000, to the La Liga Contra el Cancer, Clinica Kiwanis and St. Bosco health care centers in Miami. Through the years, as the program expanded Econoline vans were distributed to health care centers in major cities including Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Miami, San Antonio, San Diego and San Francisco.

Receiving consistent healthcare can be daunting for some Hispanic people who face obstacles such as limited financial resources and language barriers. The Salud Sobre Ruedas program provides an opportunity for a healthy future by eliminating the challenge of finding transportation to visit doctors and clinics for regular check-ups.

Studies show that Hispanics often restrict their use of healthcare resources to instances of great urgency, rather than adopting preventative healthcare behaviors. Preventative care and early detection of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease is the key for successful treatment and a long, healthy life.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, one in five Hispanics surveyed indicated that they or a member of their household postponed seeking medical care during the past year, and 44 percent said they never got the care they needed. In addition, one in seven Hispanics said they or another member of their household needed serious medical care during the past year, but did not get it.

“As the director of a recipient clinic in the Salud Sobre Ruedas program, I have witnessed first-hand the positive effects of this program on the local community and on all of my patients,” said America Bracho, CEO of Latino Health Access in Santa Ana, California. “Because of this initiative, countless people who would otherwise not have been able to attain proper healthcare are literally on the road to good health.”