Jornada
Jornada, a Spanish word for a “day’s journey,” was started in 2005 by Ellen Norton a San Diego Pediatric Physical Therapist, in partnership with the Hospital Infantil de las Californias’ (HIC) rehabilitation department and volunteers from the United States and Mexico. Starting out with just a handful therapists, Ellen teamed up with fellow Pediatric PT Patrick Wilkens in 2009 to grow each Jornada into a complete Rehabilitation Clinic. Currently with 300 volunteer Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Pathologists, translators, therapy students, and friends from both countries, each Jornada is able to provide multi-disciplinary therapy consultations to 50+ children with disabilities.
Therapists bring donated equipment for use by their specialties, such as wheelchairs, walkers, braces, and other medically necessary items. Patients are provided with this medically necessary equipment free of charge, professionally fitted, and educated via home exercise program to improve their functioning at home, school, and in the community.
Patients travel from a radius of several hours from Tijuana, and volunteers come from as far as Los Angeles and San Bernardino County. Graduate PT Students from Mount Saint Mary’s University and San Diego State University, along with Undergraduates from UCSD, regularly volunteer to assist therapists. Organizations such as DAFO (cascadedafo.com), CecilysCloset.org, and Los Rancheros Kiwanis kindly provide much needed braces, equipment and funding, respectively, while San Diego Girl Scouts regularly collect sneakers needed to fit the braces provided.
Thank you for supporting Jornada in any way you can, as our “day’s journey” is truly a collaborative effort! To donate monetarily, please click “Donate” above and note that you would like your donation to go to “Jornada Therapy.” To donate much needed wheelchairs, walkers, braces, kids’ sneakers, or to join our team of volunteers please send us a message from the “Get Involved” page by clicking this link: Get Involved