Toward Freedom
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Sandra Garcia is one part counselor, one part community leader, and one part administrator. Or at least the latter is her official title, though she does so much more than that. She is the very heart and soul of the local state-run clinic and community center in the poor Buenos Aires neighborhood of Dock Sud.
The blue and white building home to the clinic and center stands on the corner. A few kids hang out on the playground outside. A sea of cars rumble over the elevated highway a block away. The decade-old center is a one-stop shop for many of the residents' needs. They come to get a new ID card, start a cooperative, or see a doctor, gynecologist, or therapist.
"Listen, you're gonna have to fight," Garcia tells a thin woman who is getting her life back together after leaving an abusive husband.
"It's not easy," she says. "There's a long road ahead, but you can do it. I know, I've been there."
And she has. Garcia's father was an alcoholic. She had her first child at a very young age and was a single mother for years. She never finished high school.
"I have learned by experience," she says.
For many in her community, Garcia is the only thing between a solution and falling through the cracks. But it's getting harder each day for her to do her job.
Since the 1940s, Argentina has had free universal public healthcare for all of its citizens. But under the government of conservative president Mauricio Macri - who was elected in late 2015 - budget cuts and layoffs have riddled the public health sector.
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