Clinica del Pueblo
Oaxaca, Mexico
(full video)
In November of 1998, Fr. Scott visited some friends who were working with the poor in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico, 320 miles southeast of Mexico City. Oaxaca is the third poorest state in the country, with a large indigenous population. During his visit, it became very apparent that there was a need for quality healthcare for the poor. Although Mexico purports to have universal healthcare, only a small percentage of the poor have the access adequate services. On the final day of his visit, he committed himself to building a medical clinic to serve the poor who were coming in large numbers to the capital city with the dream of making a better life for themselves.
It took one year to buy, remodel and equip a building to serve first as a clinic and later as a hospital. Fr. Scott was able to finance the project with the help of many generous benefactors. The nonprofit clinic was opened January 1, 2000. Between 2000 and 2005, the clinic continued to expand. It is now a full-service hospital named after Fr. Scott’s mother who was a great inspiration in his life. It is the only hospital/clinic in Oaxaca that supplies a place for the families of the patients to stay while they are being treated. Some of the patients travel six hours to come to the hospital to receive both quality care and compassionate attention.
The hospital/clinic serves about 1,500 patients a month. During any given year, the hospital will treat as many as 300 patients who are so poor that they are unable to pay one peso for their treatment. Because of this, the hospital can only pay its bills through the continued generosity of individual donors. In the midst of great poverty, The Anna Seethaler Hospital offers hope and healing to many poor people.
To facilitate donations for The Anna Seethaler Hospital, Fr. Scott established the TASH foundation. TASH now provides funding to La Clinica del Pueblo and 6 different nonprofit organizations that focus on proactively providing solutions, opportunity, and partnership to the marginalized communities of Oaxaca.
If you would like to help keep Fr. Scott’s dream alive, you can make a donation to TASH, Inc by sending a check to:
TASH, Inc.
8878 Covenant Ave #303
Pittsburgh PA 15237
Fr. Scott Seethaler
was born in Pittsburgh, PA and presently resides there. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1969, and is a member of the Capuchin-Franciscan Order. Fr. Scott has a master’s degree in Religious Education. He has taught high school in Pennsylvania and Maryland and has also taught at Slippery Rock University and Duquesne University.
Since 1975, Fr. Scott has traveled as a motivational speaker throughout the United States. He speaks in both religious and public forums concerning issues of stress, personal and professional excellence, and family values. In 1998, he received the Communication and Leadership Award from District 13 of Toastmasters International.
Following in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi, who had a great love for the poor, Fr. Scott built a hospital for the poor and sick in Oaxaca, Mexico that opened in 2000.
