Matasanos Medical Brigade

 August 16th-August 21st I had the opportunity to go on my first medical brigade as a Global Brigades staff member. It was a very different experience being on staff compared to brigading as a student but I really enjoyed the extra responsibility. It was also the biggest brigade I have ever been on. Students from Wake Forest University, Texas A&M, UT Texas and Texas Arlington were on this brigade- 64 students total! Because we had so many students on this brigade we were able to staff each station efficiently and increase the quality of care that we gave to each patient. I met some really amazing students on the brigade and learned so much more than I thought I would. It is my hope this year to not only impact the lives of the Hondurans that we work with but to also inspire as many students as possible. It is such a overwhelming feeling to see how much impact these students really are having on the lives of the patients they see as well as how much the students are being impacted throughout the week. One thing that I absolutely love about this job is that I am continuously learning something new each and every day and I hope that never changes. 

The community that we worked in this week is called Matasanos. Matasanos is in the municipality of Danli in the department of El Paraiso. Go here for more information about Matasanos. 

The first night that I was there I was able to teach the students all about the triage station. I taught them how to take all vital signs and what questions to ask the patients to obtain patient history. Since the brigade coordinator and other staff were busy organizing other stations of the brigade I stayed in the triage station almost all week. This is one of my favorite stations because the students are able to have direct contact with the patients, take vitals and obtain the patient history. Since you are directly communicating with patients in this station you connect with them on a deeper level. Being in this station most of the week also helped me see many health trends in this community which allowed me to ask better questions about the prevalent diseases in that community with the doctors after the brigade. The triage station really helps the doctor consultation run much more smoothly since the doctors can now spend more time diagnosing and less time obtaining the background information for each patient. The students on the brigade did an awesome job picking up on the responsibilities of this station which allowed me to help out at other stations later on in the week.

On the last day of the medical brigade a man from a nearby community cut a major artery in his foot with a machete while he was working in a field near our clinic. The machete was so sharp that it cut completely through the boot he was wearing and caused a very deep cut in the top of his foot. With the help of one of his relatives he was able to make it to our brigade and was sent directly to one of the doctors working with us, Dr. Walter. By the time he got there though he had already lost a significant amount of blood. Normally, we do not see many emergency situations during the brigade due to the fact that patients sometimes have to walk for hours to reach our clinic. Luckily, we always carry an emergency kit and Dr. Walter was able to manage his blood loss and give him an IV to control his dropping blood pressure. Because of instances like this Global Brigades has implemented a Patient Referral Program. Whenever patients have conditions that go beyond the scope of our clinic, the doctors are able to refer them to the nearest clinic and Global Brigades is able to cover the cost of further treatment. This program also works to be able to take any patients from the brigade to the nearest hospital if there is an emergency situation. Once the patient was stabilized one of the Global Brigades drivers was able to drive him to the nearest hospital which was over a 30 minute drive away. Without our brigade being there that day, the patient may have not been able to make it to that hospital. I truly believe everything happens for a reason and I am so happy that we were there that day to take him to the hospital. 

I could talk forever about everything that happened and everything I learned on the medical brigade this week but this post is getting pretty long so I am going to jump right to the last day of the week. I will make a few more posts about the other stations of the medical brigade in the next few weeks so that you have a better understanding of what exactly takes place on these brigades. Since we have started implementing our new medical model students go on a medical brigade for 3 days in the same community and on the fourth day they have the opportunity to go on a pilot brigade with 1 of 4 other Global Brigades programs. Depending on the availability they can choose to go on a water, public health, architecture or microfinance pilot brigade. This week the 4th day option was an architecture brigade. Since the school in Zurzular is almost complete, architecture brigades as began building another school in Santa Rosa I. On this brigade we were able to help finish 6 walls of one of the classrooms of the new school. Like Zurzular, students in this community are only able to go to school through 6th grade. Once this school is complete they will be able to attend school through 9th grade. More information about Santa Rosa I can be found here. The students really enjoyed being able to have a hands on project to work on during the week as well. Their work will greatly impact the lives of all the children in Santa Rosa. All of the students that went on the pilot brigade were very grateful that they were given the opportunity to help build a school rather than go to the tourist city Valle de los Angeles to buy souvenirs. One student said, "this is SO much better than tourism." You could really see the desire in each student to make as big as an impact as possible the week that they were there and a huge impact is what they made.

Advisor Training- El Zurzular, Francisco Morazan, Honduras

Once all the new Honduran advisors arrived in-country we had a week long advisor training where we learned everything we need to know to be successful at advising student groups. At the end of the week we took a break from office work and went on a community visit to Zurzular. Zurzular is one of the 80 rural communities that Global Brigades is currently working in Honduras. 

Zurzular models the true mission of Global Brigades. Global Brigades is a health and sustainable development organization that aims to holistically improve the lives of those living in the communities that we work in.  Global Brigades is comprised of 9 different programs that all work together to achieve this goal. Zurzular is a great model for this mission because 6 of Global Brigades programs are currently working in this community- Medical, Dental, Architecture, Water, Public Health and Microfinance. Click here for more information about Zurzular. 

During our community visit we first visited the school that is being built by Architecture brigades. Like in most rural communities, children only have the opportunity to go school through the 6th grade mostly because they do not have adequate facilities to pursue education past 6th grade. Architecture brigades is making a huge impact in these communities by building secondary schools so that they children now have the opportunity to go to school through 9th grade. The secondary school in Zurzular is almost complete! Here is what it looks like so far. 

We then hiked up to the communities water source. Up until recently none of the houses in Zurzular had running water. Community members would have to spend hours a day retrieving water from a nearby stream and bringing back to their homes. Keep in mind that this water was not sterilized and caused numerous amounts of intestinal diseases. However, this was the only water they had available to them. Now, because of the Water Brigades program every home in Zurzular not only has running water but clean running water. Water brigades has trained community members on how to maintain the water system in Zurzular and sterilize the water in their water storage tank. Since the completion of the water project there have been NO reported cases of diarrhea which is indicative of intestinal parasites. 

Clean water. Something almost everyone in the United States takes for granted everyday. Can you imagine having constant stomach pain and diarrhea that leads to extreme discomfort and dehydration? Ironically, even if you are able to obtain medicine that kills the your current parasites, you take the medicine with the same contaminated water. It is a never ending cycle for many living in rural Honduras. With the help of a couple hundred university students we are able to drastically change the lives of those living in communities like Zurzular. 

We then visited one of the homes in Zurzular to learn about 4 public health projects that were completed there. Global Brigades started with one program- the medical brigade program. During the first medical brigades the same medical conditions were seen over and over again. Because Global Brigades wanted to be more sustainable, the Public Health and Water programs were born. We not only want to treat the community members' current diseases but also want to work to address the root problems of their illnesses. For example, one of the most prevalent problems seen on the medical brigades was lung conditions such as asthma, chronic cough etc. In most homes, the stoves do not have chimneys and so all the smoke that is produced day in and day out was being constantly breathed in by those who lived in the home. This caused many of the lung conditions that we saw on medical brigades. One of the projects that Public Health Brigades does is build eco-stoves. Not only do these stoves now have chimneys that carry the smoke outside their homes but they are also more efficient and use 80% less wood. Now less time is spent collecting wood each week and families are able to spend more time doing other things. Other projects that Public Health Brigades works on is concrete floors, latrines, and pilas. All projects directly relate to a health issue and by implementing each of these projects in these rural homes many of the most prevalent diseases in Honduras are prevented.

This visit to Zurzular was fantastic. It was a great break from the office and not only were we able to get to know the other advisors better but we were also able to see first-hand how many of the different Global Brigade programs work together to provide sustainable development for the communities that GB works in.

~About Me~

I just recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May 2011 with a major in Biology and minors in Spanish and Chemistry. I found out about Global Brigades my sophomore year and went on my first medical brigade to Honduras in 2009. Although this phrase is extremely overused, this experience was truly life changing. I fell in love with the people, the culture, the climate, the landscape and every other aspect of Honduras. I was humbled by the simple lifestyle so many of the Hondurans lived and couldn't help but be overwhelmed by their sincere happiness although they had nothing. They were so grateful for the medical services that we provided them with and although I went on this trip to change the lives of those living in rural Honduran communities, the people I met impacted my life more than I could have ever imagined.  I truly felt at home in Honduras and this trip solidified what I want to do as a career.

 The people of Honduras and other underserved populations have held a special place in my heart since I was 10 years old. My parents went on a medical mission trip to Honduras and ever since then my compassion for impoverished people has only grown. I grew up in a middle class environment, never in need of anything. I went to the same school from 3-year old preschool through 10th grade. This school was also my Church. Needless to say I grew up in a pretty small bubble and didn't have any understanding whatsoever of the outside world until my parents went to Honduras. My dad brought a very early addition of a digital camera with him on his trip. During one of their clinics, a old man asked my dad to take a picture of him. After my dad took the picture he showed it to the man. The man began crying and through a translator he told my dad that this was the first time in 87 years that he had ever seen what he looked like. The most he had ever seen of himself was his reflection in the stream near his small, rural town. My dad printed his picture off for me and ever since he told me that story the old man's picture has been right beside my bed to remind me how fortunate I am everyday.  As 10 year old girl who owned at least 10 mirrors and had never even heard of this type of poverty, this story greatly impacted me. Although I did not realize it then, this man planted a seed in my heart that would continue to grow throughout my schooling and would drive my passion for wanting to bring medical care to those who otherwise do not have access to it.

Below is the picture that my dad took of the elderly Honduran man. He had been watching my dad use his camera and then show the pictures he took to the children. So when he asked my dad to take a picture of him  he knew that he would finally be able to see what he looked like. Can you imagine what he is thinking in the moment this picture was being taken? Up until this point he has gone his ENTIRE life without really knowing what he looked like and being able to finally know was becoming a reality. I cannot even come close to fathoming what he was thinking and feeling during this moment.

After that first trip to Honduras I became more involved with the medical brigades chapter at my university. I went on another medical brigade spring break of my junior year and after that trip I became president of the UNC medical brigades chapter. This leadership position further solidified what I want to do with my life. I found myself spending almost all my free time working on things for our club because I truly believed in the mission of Global Brigades and wanted to do everything I could to be a part of that mission and ensure our brigades were successful. This is somewhat hard to explain but I have this inner turmoil or unrest that does not subside unless I am doing something meaningful to help better the lives of those who are not even given basic human rights such has healthcare, clean water, and a clean, disease-free home to live. I have been so extremely blessed and although this sounds cliché all I want to do is give back to people who were never given any of the opportunities I was given. Being able to plan a prepare two medical brigades to Honduras and one to Panama was one of the most rewarding and satisfying experiences of my life thus far. 

My senior year of college I knew I wanted to take a year off from school to expand my world view and work for a non-profit organization. As I was in the midst of many applications I received an email about a job opportunity with Global Brigades. The job was for a Medical and Dental Program Advisor who would be living in Honduras. This job was literally my dream job and could not have been a more perfect fit for what I was looking for. I applied right away and after many sets of interviews I was very fortunate to be offered the position. I am now living in Honduras working for Global Brigades and could not be any happier. It is such an amazing, indescribable feeling to know you are exactly where you are meant to be, doing exactly what you are meant to be doing. Right now I am in the process of applying to Physician Assistant School and hope to continue my education next fall with hopes of becoming a PA so that I can implement healthcare initiatives in places that have limited access to healthcare.