SSWE Friends

Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO)
IFCO is a multi-issue national ecumenical agency, which was founded in 1967 to organize and
assist local communities organizing around issues of racial, social and economic justice. The first
national foundation directed and controlled by people of color, IFCO has initiated, advised, and
given support to hundreds of community-based projects in all regions of the US. IFCO’s work has focused on both domestic and international issues: civil and human rights, education, housing; women’s rights, farmworkers’ rights, Native Americans’ rights; sterilization abuse, grand jury abuse; addressing systemic health disparities and lack of access to basic health care; and the support of liberation struggles around the world. Through its Pastors for Peace program, IFCO is now organizing its 20th caravan to Cuba, and has delivered more than 2900 tons of humanitarian aid in a direct challenge to the brutal US economic blockade of Cuba. IFCO is honored to have been chosen to administer the scholarship program for US students at the Latin American School of Medicine, and is responsible for admissions and recruitment of US students and for assisting with their re-entry into the US medical system. IFCO was selected for this role because of its long history of prophetic work in solidarity with Cuba; because of its strong working relationship with the Congressional Black Caucus; and because of its historic commitment to support efforts to improve the quality of life in our own nation’s poorest and most underserved communities. To learn more about IFCO, click here.

Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba (MEDICC)
Since 1997 MEDICC’s mission has been to contribute to the development of medical education paradigms that foster health equity, relying on and cooperating with relevant aspects of the Cuban medical education experience. Through 2004, MEDICC organized electives in Cuba for over 1,500 students from 118 US medical schools. With an annual budget of $1.7 million, MEDICC’s programs include producing ¡SALUD!, a feature-length film on Cuba’s health system; publishing MEDICC Review, the only internationally peer-reviewed journal on Cuban health and medicine; and consulting on important research by U.S. health professionals in Cuba (including for UCSF’s Center for the Health Professions) and the Faculty-Community Health Leadership Program. MEDICC believes that ELAM graduates who can take the final steps toward becoming primary care physicians in the US will not only serve their communities’ health care needs for decades, but they will also serve as advocates and role models. Their success will encourage other African American, Latino and low-income students of all races to follow in their path. Click here to visit MEDICC’s Web site.

Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP)
SWOP is a statewide multi-racial, multi-issue, community based membership organization. Since 1980 SWOP has worked to make it possible for thousands of New Mexicans to begin to have a place and voice in social, economic and environmental decisions that affect our lives. SWOP’s mission is “working to empower our communities to realize racial and gender equality and social and economic justice.” Click here to learn more about SWOP.

Native Health Initiative (NHI)

NHI is the only American Indian partnership and/or organization in the U.S. that is run by tribes working with health professionals and students. It was created in 2004 as several respected tribal health leaders, health lay workers, faith-based leaders and health profession students sat down discuss how to build a partnership. Health projects are created by and run by tribal communities and their leaders. To learn more about NHI click here.