More than 400 members offer their time and expertise to make our mission a reality. Volunteer pilots fly our teams to Mexico on four- to five-day monthly trips, and provide additional assistance flying teams to our Oasis clinic in the Coachella Valley in tandem with volunteers who drive. LMV volunteers reach clinic locations in Latin America by commercial airliner and ground transportation for seven- to ten-day trips several times a year, as well. LMV provides clinics in the following specific geographies:
- more than 20 villages in the northern Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California (map)
- Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, and Perú in Latin America (map)
- the Coachella Valley migrant camps in southeastern California
LMV clinics are open to anyone who can reach the clinic during open hours in the areas we serve. And we help improve villagers' lives not only by treating their immediate health problems, but also by providing lasting tools that empower people to help themselves – including health education, especially for women and children, and clinic equipment for ongoing use by local healthcare professionals. We are proud to work closely with a broad range of partner organizations, including Rotary, Airline Ambassadors, and local medical and dental schools.
History
Founder Milt Camp launched LMV's work in the early 1970s when he was an employee of Hewlett Packard, whose generous employee philanthropy policy permitted Milt to spend a considerable amount of his time helping the peoples of northern Mexico by running volunteer healthcare clinics. He registered Los Médicos Voladores, Inc., as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the state of California in 1975. Known as "The Flying Doctors," the group quickly grew from a few members to over 50 in half a year, and from a single group to five chapters over subsequent years.
Structure
LMV is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization comprised of five chapters, all entirely volunteer-run and staffed. Four of our chapters are geographically based in northern California and Nevada and operate missions to Mexico: Bay Area Chapter (San Jose, CA), Gold Country Chapter (Auburn, CA), High Sierra Chapter (Truckee, CA), and Reno Chapter (Reno, NV). A fifth, eponymous chapter focuses on International trips, although it is also based in San Jose, CA and has members from across the United States. Our umbrella "corporate" structure, headed by a volunteer board of directors, oversees the chapters' work, supporting and guiding our 400-odd members as they organize, run, and evaluate the success of our missions.
