Our first medical brigade will be to Honduras from May 21st-May 27th. Very exciting, however that raises the question: what is a medical brigade? Read on to find out!
What is a medical brigade?
In a Medical Brigade, students will be given the chance to support preventive and primary healthcare in communities with little to no access to a proper healthcare infrastructure. In Honduras, the communities are impoverished, and as volunteers your role will be to support clinics running on a primary care model to give these patients the care they need.
What will I be doing as a volunteers?
While physicians provide patient consults and prescribe treatment for acute illnesses, students can shadow them, triage patients, host education workshops, and help distribute medicine in the pharmacy over the course of seven days. An example schedule and a diagram of the clinic setup is included below. Aside from the special stations, it is unsure how involved certified healthcare professionals can get in the pharmacy, consultation, dental, etc., however we would be more than happy to relay any specific questions or requests to our program associate.
Do we have to figure out lodging, food, transportation, etc.? What if we don't speak the language?
Lodging facilities, volunteer safety and transportation, translators, and equipment will also be provided by our parent organization, Global Brigades. However, airfare will not and will have to be funded by the volunteer themself. If you foresee having trouble with this, speak to the exec board and we can see if we can factor your airfare into our Donation Goal.
What is the Donation Goal?
To be able to go on a brigade, our chapter has to recruit at least 18 volunteers (GT students, healthcare professionals, independent volunteers) and raise at least $1300 per volunteer towards a Donation Goal which helps cover these costs (due two weeks before the brigade). However, healthcare professionals who fall under the below categories earn a $200 scholarship towards their portion of the Donation Goal. Furthermore, we plan on raising the funds as a club and through organizational funding and external sponsorship, so the only thing our volunteers have to worry about is airfare. However, if you or your loved ones would like to contribute to our goal, your contributions here (include donation link) are much appreciated!
We will have more concrete deadlines for when volunteers need to commit and more, however we hope this covers all basic questions.
Note: All images are derived from Global Brigades. You can learn more by visiting their site at https://medical.globalbrigades.org/medical-brigades/
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