CARE PACKAGE VOLUNTEER CLINIC SERVES AREA WORKING POORCENTER OFFERS ACCESS TO CARE.

Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS - In a makeshift office, set up with folding tables and staffed with volunteers, Sonia Alvarado found the help she was looking for.

One recent Wednesday evening, she was able to explain, for free, the ailment she could not afford to have examined.

``I have a pain that started two weeks ago,'' Alvarado said to a clinic volunteer.

``It starts here and goes all the way up,'' Alvarado explained as her hand traveled from the base of her neck to the top of her head.

With her wages as a part-time housekeeper, buying health insurance is out of the question for the 38-year-old mother of three.

But she is able to find help at Villa Garcia, a low-income apartment complex operated by the nonprofit Many Mansions, which now houses a summer clinic for the working poor.

On Wednesdays, the clinic at Villa Garcia sets up to treat uninsured residents for minor ailments - from respiratory infections to backaches - referring those with serious illnesses to hospitals.

This is the second summer Many Mansions has hosted the free clinic, which during the winter months is based at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Westlake Village to provide medical care for the homeless.

Last summer, the clinic was held at Shadow Hills Apartments but moved this year to Villa Garcia on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, where it would be more centrally located to serve the working poor.

The clinic operated on a $4,000 annual budget last year - money that pays for lab tests and medicines the clinic doesn't have available, but can get at lower costs because of a deal with a local pharmacy and labs.

``Our residents have $43 left over at the end of the month after they pay their rent and get what they are supposed to,'' said Lisa Safaeinili, Many Mansions' director of resource development.

``They all work locally but they are not provided with insurance where they work. They work at the mall, they work in grocery stores, they work for car dealers. They can't pay for $120 tests.''

Safaeinili estimated 90 percent of the residents who live in Many Mansions' six low-income housing projects go without health insurance and don't qualify for Medi-Cal, a state insurance program for the poor.

She estimated that 800 adults in Many Mansions housing could be helped by the clinic.

The plan is to hold the clinic at Villa Garcia for nine months and then in the winter go back to Westminster Presbyterian Church to serve the homeless population, organizers said. The clinic is looking for volunteer doctors and nurses.

The hope is that the clinic can provide basic care, helping patients whose problems might otherwise go untreated until they need emergency room care - which would saddle a low-income family with huge debt, Safaeinili said.

``Early treatment is often the best care. This clinic will provide that.

``Lots of the people are excited,'' she said. ``It's the only health care that is available to them.''

One Wednesday evening, a group of volunteer high school students was readying the clinic in a community room next to the pool at Villa Garcia, pulling out bins of medicine and setting up tables.

Registered nurse Eileen Nilsen, who works in a doctor's office in Calabasas, is one of two nurses volunteering their time with Dr. Steve Kamajian.

``We are filling a little niche,'' she said.

Two women were the first patients to come in. They sat down on a row of chairs as Amanda Vinson and another student took their medical history and their vital signs.

``I'm here to serve the community,'' said Vinson, 18, a premed student at Stanford University, who has volunteered at the clinic since she was 15. ``I've always believed in community service.''

Soon Kamajian arrived, having driven 50 miles from his office in Montrose.

``OK, guys, I need four sets of hands,'' he said, entering the community room. A few students followed him out to help unload trash bags full of medicine from the trunk of his car. The bulk of the clinic's medicines are those given as free samples to Kamajian by drug companies.

After a full day at the office, Kamajian spent most of the night examining the patients who filed into the community room. The clinic limits the patient load to 12 to 15 people a night.

Kamajian, a general practitioner, started treating those without insurance six years ago.

With a couple of trunks of medicine and his medical kit, he was treating the poor out of a broom closet at Westminster Presbyterian, said Cindy Vinson, one of the program managers and Amanda Vinson's mother.

Kamajian's services became part of The Conejo Winter Shelter, a coalition of 27 churches and synagogues that open their doors to the homeless during the winter months.

``It's necessary,'' Kamajian said. ``There is a little gap in our medical system right now. The homeless and working poor are left in big voids and the politicians have not addressed it and insurance companies have not addressed it.

``The working poor . . . are an inspiration,'' Kamajian said. ``They recognize the American dream and are pursuing it.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1 -- 4 -- color) Dr. Steven Kamajian, center, guides volunteer Justine Chiou, 16, in examining Louis Rosales Vasquez at a free clinic. At left, Louis Rosales Vasquez has his blood pressure checked by volunteer Jerry Jiang, 16, while Otavio Ariega Gutierrez waits his turn.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer