20 Years Later: UMMA Gala For A Healthier South LA
(LOS ANGELES, CA) Born of the community trauma of the Rodney King riots in 1992, South Los Angeles’ University Muslim Medical Association (UMMA) Community Clinic will host its 20th anniversary Gala on Saturday, October 8th, 2016 at 6:00 PM Pacific at the Anaheim Hilton. With commitment from socially-concerned Muslim medical students and forward-thinking politicians such as Congresswoman Maxine Waters, UMMA was founded on the idea that we must care for our communities, build resilience among our neighbors, and emphasize that dignity is not negotiable.
The 20th Anniversary Gala of UMMA commemorates its legacy and reaffirms its momentum in advancing the causes of readily accessible health care built on a solid foundation of respect for the individual and the community, as it was built by the community, for the community of South Los Angeles.
UMMA will not only celebrate its 20th anniversary but also honor two individuals who represent our core values of dignity, social justice, and compassion. UMMA will present its Champion for Dignity award to Senator Ricardo Lara for his visionary leadership promulgating civil rights, education and #Health4All. Gloria Serrano, a long-time UMMA patient and community health educator, will receive our Voice of Compassion award.
Master of Ceremonies, comedian Dean Obeidallah, the only Muslim-American daily national radio personality in the U.S., will host UMMA’s 20th Anniversary Gala, featuring University of Southern California’s King Faisal Chair in Islamic Thought and Culture & Professor of Religion, American Studies and Ethnicity, Dr. Sherman Jackson, Al Mabghrib Institute Resident Scholar and Dean of Academic Affairs Dr. Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, and the extraordinary musical talents of the international rabab artist Qais Essar. We are also honored that the Mayor’s Office of Los Angeles will be in attendance.
Proceeds of UMMA’s 20th Anniversary Gala will be used for an expansion of services, focusing primarily on helping the families of South Los Angeles bring children into the world with compassion and caring, in safe and supportive environments, expanding behavioral health services to aid the community in recovering from past trauma and coping with new challenges, and an expansion of facilities and hours in an effort to make healthcare more accessible, both by adapting our services to the harried schedules of patients and bringing mobile services into the community.
“Funds raised from UMMA’s 20th Anniversary Gala will be used to ensure we approach the future with the core beliefs that all voices should be heard and that high quality health care is a basic human right. UMMA arose from the ashes of despair and civil unrest that rocked South L.A. twenty years ago, adhering to the simple idea that morality and compassion, service and solidarity, are founded on respect and a concern for the dignity of all members of the community, and if a member of the community is ailing, we all feel the fever and should work together as one people to solidify and celebrate our common humanity,” said UMMA CEO Dr. Miriam Vega.
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