When you redeem the coins you’ve earned in UNICEF Kid Power for medical supplies for healthcare visits, you’re helping to shape futures for those who need extra support. With access to proper healthcare, young people can survive and thrive. Let’s meet Antonio and learn about his experience getting health services at a mobile clinic.
Antonio’s story
When he turned 18, Antonio became homeless. With nowhere to turn, he took a public bus to a safe house for youth who have nowhere to stay in Las Vegas. While living at the safe house, he received health services from the local mobile health clinic. At the clinic, Antonio immediately received a survival kit containing warm clothes, hygiene and safety supplies, food, and gift cards.(1)
Antonio has type 1 diabetes, and needs to take insulin to manage his blood sugar levels. Without a home or consistent access to care, it was scary and dangerous to manage emergency situations.(2)
Antonio has type 1 diabetes and must take insulin to manage his blood sugar. When Antonio first visited the clinic, he was sharing his insulin with other youth with diabetes who didn’t have the means to get it. In other words, he was risking his own health to help others.
“I can’t imagine seeing anybody go through a hard time, anybody stressing out and not knowing that they have support,” Antonio says.(2)
It became scary and dangerous for Antonio, having no home or consistent access to care, to try to manage his own emergency situations.(3) With the clinic’s help, he was able to get his diabetes under control.
Antonio’s journey has had a lasting impact not just on his own life but on the lives of others in his community. Now, he is an advocate for young people who are homeless and encourages them to get healthcare services from the mobile clinic.(4)
Mobile health clinics
Mobile clinics bring medical care directly to kids (where they live, study and play), regardless of their ability to pay, which is a barrier to healthcare for many. Patients can get check-ups, medications; and dental, mental and emotional health services.
Making a positive difference
By redeeming Kid Power Coins for medical supplies in the Kid Power Exchange, you’re helping to provide healthcare to young people who may not have had access to it otherwise. You’re creating a positive difference for young people like Antonio, who with proper healthcare, can overcome big obstacles and maybe even create positive change in their own communities (just as you and Antonio are doing)!
- Children’s Health Fund. 2020. “AT 18, HE WAS WITHOUT A HOME. NOW, HE’S A LEADER AND ACTIVIST.” Children’s Health Fund (a UNICEF USA local impact partner through UNICEF Kid Power). December 17, 2020. https://www.childrenshealthfund.org/at-18-he-was-without-a-home-now-hes-a-leader-and-activist/
- Children’s Health Fund. 2020. “AT 18, HE WAS WITHOUT A HOME. NOW, HE’S A LEADER AND ACTIVIST.”
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
