Where God Wants Me

Dr. Dominica P. Garcia, San Lorenzo Ruiz Awardee 2009 

Dr. Dominica P. Garcia is a physician from Pampanga province, Philippines, who has served as the director of medical services at the Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok since 1987. She is a graduate of the University of Sto. Tomas, College of Medicine, in Manila. She also works for the Asia-Pacific Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), a non-profit organization that serves Indochinese refugees and detained illegal immigrants in Bangkok. 

Over the last 3 decades, she has done her ministry in Thailand. In 1974, she was hired as the medical director of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the U.S. bishops’ official overseas relief and development agency, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It was the year prior to Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge’s regime. The evacuation in 1975 led her to move to Bangkok, then back to the Philippines. She later returned to Thailand after a year to work with Laotian refugees at the Thai border in Nong Khai province. During this time, she also briefly helped in building medical services for Vietnamese boat people in Malaysia. Then in 1979, due to a desperate need of medical attention, she decided to return to work in the Thai-Cambodian border at the Khmer Rouge camps under the Christian Missionary Alliance, where the number of Cambodians coming from Phnom Penh was growing rapidly. This was right after the Khmer Rouge genocide, and the arrival of the Vietnamese force. A year later, the Swiss Red Cross asked her to become the chief of its tuberculosis program in all the border camps. She also worked with a medical mission sister to raise funds for the refugees. When she resigned from the Red Cross, she began to freelance for many different organizations. 

When she left the border, intending to be a full-time mother to her daughter, she was then again asked by a high-ranking Filipino official at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to work part-time at the Immigration Detention Center in Suan Plu. She took over the position of the physician who was transferred to Africa and became the outpatient doctor for Vietnamese in transit. And this opened a window of opportunity for ministry at the detention center. 

With very minimal staff and volunteers, Dr. Garcia dealt with many problems. There was overcrowding and, therefore, a higher demand for food at the detention center. There were a growing number of HIV/AIDS-infected detainees. Money was spent on travel costs, rather than food, for those who were repatriated. Yet, many detainees still stayed because they had no country to go back to. Even so, Dr. Garcia continued to serve to help meet the needs of the people. 

When asked why she had chosen to take such course in her life, she said that the best place for her to be was exactly where God puts her. She believes God has equipped her to do what needs to be done. 

Dr. Dominica P. Garcia is a symbol of hope to many, especially those she had helped in the past. Her acts of compassion, obedience and humble service are worth sharing, and worth living for. May her life be an inspiration to many, and a challenge to those who seek purpose and meaning in life.