Before the sun rises over the Mexico City skyline each weekday, a group of sleepy children board a bus.

Instead of taking them to school, the bus picks them up curbside, then transports them to appointments that could mean the difference between life and death.

Many of the children come from rural parts of Mexico that don’t have the specialized cancer care they need, so they relocated temporarily to Casa de la Amistad, a nonprofit that offers housing and services to children with cancer. It’s a welcoming place where children and their caretakers can live while the treatment takes place in hospitals around Mexico City.

The sprawling capital city can be a transportation challenge, and the bus, funded by the Baxter International Foundation, connects a critical portion of the healing journey for children and their families. The bus was purchased last year and will transport more than 10,000 young patients by 2018.

The bus is one part of the “Driving your Health” initiative, which aims to increase access to healthcare in and around Mexico City.