GEORGETOWN, Del. – The Rosa Health Center in Georgetown has been waiting for over a year to expand its facilities due to the demand in the area, and today, they are one step closer to that goal after receiving an $800,000 grant from the Longwood Foundation.

Keila Menéndez has worked at the non-profit organization for six years. She describes the moment she and her co-workers have been waiting for as they currently care for 2,000 patients.

“When we got the news of Longwood’s Grant, it was like a Christmas miracle to us because we’ve actually been applying to several grants because we do have the vision of expanding the Rosa to help more patients,” Menéndez said.  

With the grant, the non-profit organization, in which 90% of the patients are Hispanic, will increase the number of exam rooms from two to eight and add a space for group education.

“By having a place where we can talk to them and explain and show, that would be the best way to do education, and that’s for me, a personal excitement because that’s been a personal dream for me, is to be able to do the education part,” Dr. Rama Peri, medical director at The Rosa Health Center, said.

Patients like Dorotea Escalante Ortíz are looking forward to the new facilities.

“This is nice because the space is small, and now there will be more space to care for patients or, let’s say, for everyone,” Escalante Ortíz said.

The non-profit organization’s goal is to serve the entire community.

“In Georgetown, there’s a lot of low-income communities, not only in the Hispanic population, but the Haitian population, African-American population, Caucasian population. So, we’re looking towards helping all the community in whatever way we can, and right now, because our size is small, we do have to limit,” Menéndez said.

The clinic was also approved for Community Project Funding, and once the federal budget is approved, they will receive $1,082,537.

The Rosa Health Center hopes to start renovating and expanding its facilities at the beginning of 2024.

If you want to donate, visit The Rosa Health Center’s website.