Walaa Daffaamma had no health insurance when she relocated to St. Louis from Texas five months ago. So she was relieved to find free care available nearby at the Bilal Ibn Rabaah Mosque on the campus of Saint Louis University.
“I was very satisfied with my first visit,” Daffaamma said during a recent return trip. “For people like us, this clinic is so important. It gives us a place to go when we need help.”
The free clinic, run by the St. Louis chapter of the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America, provides medical, dental and vision care to uninsured and underinsured patients. Every Sunday, volunteer physicians accept walk-ins. Dental services are offered twice a month, and an optometrist sees patients there monthly.
When the clinic opened on Sept. 11, 2011, most of the equipment was donated, and many medical professionals brought their own tools. At the time, it offered only dental services once a month.
“We got so busy and so many patients started showing up that we increased services to twice a month,” said Dr. Shaista Rashid, an assistant clinical dean at the Missouri School of Dentistry and Oral Health at A.T. Still University.
Founded by seven local physicians, the clinic’s mission is to expand access to preventive and primary care while giving medical and non-medical volunteers hands-on experience in community service.
High school and college students keep the small space running efficiently — taking vitals, organizing charts, filing paperwork and shadowing doctors. Many volunteers are Muslim students who see their work as both professional training and a spiritual duty.
One of those students is Nemat Shaikh, a freshman pre-med major at Maryville University, who has volunteered at the clinic since her sophomore year of high school.
“I like it because I can give back in a good way,” she said. “The clinic helps a lot of people who don’t have the money for services.”
Dr. Ata Siddiqui, an anesthesiologist who joined the clinic in 2019, helps manage operations. He said most of the volunteers are from SLU and nearby universities, and they are the “engine” keeping the clinic running.
“I feel like a proud papa when I see them graduate and move on to medical school,” he said. “It’s a good feeling.”
The clinic’s inclusive philosophy has made a difference for patients like Juwariyayh Hussain Baloch, a young dental patient whose family is still waiting for insurance paperwork to process.
“There’s no way that family could go to a traditional dental office without documents,” Siddiqui said. “We go out of our way to help patients like them because our goal is to serve everyone.”
On a recent, rainy Sunday morning, several patients were waiting when the doors opened at 10:30. A handful of volunteers and a couple of professionals were dressed in scrubs and ready to work.
Dr. Rashid was ready, too. Between talking to The St. Louis American and patients, she paused to check in with a volunteer. “How many patients have you seen today?” she asked. The young volunteer responded, “A lot.”
“Giving back to the community is important to all of us,” Rashid said. “We’re not just offering a service — we’re giving our time, our expertise and our full effort to ensure everyone who walks through that door is treated with dignity and respect. That’s the mission of this clinic.”