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.
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