Bridge Health Gaps: Donate for MEDLIFE Costa Rica Trip

Hi friends and family! I need your help! As many of your know, I am a senior at the University of Kentucky studying Biology and Neuroscience, in hopes of becoming a physician one day! For the past few years at the University of Kentucky, I have been involved in a student organization called MEDLIFE and have had the privilege of serving as President of this organization this year.

MEDLIFE is an acronym that stands for Medicine, Education, and Development for Low-Income Families Everywhere and is an international non-profit organization that aims to lessen the constraints of poverty in these areas while empowering college students like me to do our part in bridging the gap of health inequity by going on service learning trips. Last year, I traveled to Cusco, Peru for 8 days on a service learning trip that broadened my perspective on health care and global health disparities and has helped me become even more compassionate, empathetic, and empowered to be an advocate for people who sometimes feel like they can’t advocate for themselves. On this trip, I volunteered in a mobile medical clinic for 3 days and got hands-on experience serving 484 patients that otherwise would not have received the medical, dental, or OB/GYN care they deserve. We also spent 1 day in a community building multiple greenhouses to increase crop variety in the community to better meet their nutritional needs. This trip made a profound impact on not only the communities we served, but also in the students who volunteered.

This year, we are traveling on a service learning trip to Tamarindo, Costa Rica to bring healthcare, education, and development to their rural communities. In Costa Rica, around 20% of the population falls below the national poverty line, earning less than $155 per month on average. As you can imagine, this causes a huge barrier for Costa Ricans to access healthcare and educational opportunities, which is where MEDLIFE comes in! My greatest barrier to this trip is finances, so I am fundraising in an effort to cover as much of my trip as possible. Reaching my fundraising goal would allow me to serve on this trip without financial constraint. A large fraction of my trip cost goes towards the supplies, medicine, and native physicians essential in running these clinics, so any donated money will not only allow me to serve but also provide the means for MEDLIFE to serve even more people who need it most. Any donation, big or small, would mean the world to me.