Saudi Aramco World: Healing South Central

Here is an excerpt from an excellent Saudi Aramco World article about the UMMA Community Clinic in South-Central Los Angeles:

“You’re only students.”

That was the reaction from community leaders in 1992 when Rushdi Abdul Cader and six med-school friends proposed offering free medical services in South Central Los Angeles, then recently ravaged by riots.

What made the proposal even less plausible was that the seven, all members of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), had no money—and it would be years before they received their degrees.

Nonetheless, four years later, with the encouragement of their professors and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Rita Walters, the indefatigable idealists opened the first charity health clinic in the United States founded by Muslims. They named it UMMA, an acronym for “University Muslim Medical Association” and the Arabic word for “community.”

Read the rest of the article:

• Saudi Aramco World: Healing South Central