Global Brigades Medical Brigade to Honduras 2022

Hi, my name is Arjan Shanker and I am a 3rd year medical student at the University of Birmingham. This summer I am volunteering with the charity Global Brigades to go to Honduras to provide medical support for people with minimal access to health care. For this voluntary work I am aiming to fund raise so that I can help provide medical support to those in need.

Global Brigades are a student-led, international, non-profit organisation that strives to provide improvements for global health. Global brigades have sent over 65,000 students from the US, Canada and the UK to volunteer in our partnered countries: Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua and Ghana.

Global Brigades' ultimate goal is to reduce the health inequalities and economic disparities that stop international communities from developing. We introduce a unique holistic model that aids the community’s health and economic needs. Our holistic model includes providing sanitation, clean water, medical aid and economic development. Another way we provide sustainable care to ensure the long-term viability of our projects is by collaborating with the local government. We are making significant changes outside the brigades through the Empowered 100 project, supported by local and international partners. The empowered 100 is a project to power 100 communities in Ghana, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama to be lifted out of global poverty through 3 key components (healthcare, WASH and economic development). Another way we ensure sustainability is through the sustainable health fund. A proportion of our donation goal goes to the sustainable health fund, which enables year-round healthcare in the communities we work with by the local teams.

I will be going on the Honduras Medical Brigade, in which we will strive to achieve our first two goals of the Global Brigades Holistic model. These are: making sure there is equal and affordable healthcare for all community members and ensuring there are appropriately trained healthcare workers to aid this. During our days in Honduras, we will be helping to conduct medical clinics. There will be five stations: optometry, dentistry, triage, pharmacy, gynaecology and Charla public health station. The Charla public health station will include running educational workshops for children and adults. For adults, we will focus on essential topics such as recognising red flag symptoms and teaching them when to consult and encouraging them to seek appropriate healthcare at the right time. For the children, we will be planning workshops on things such as the importance of personal hygiene and brushing teeth. We will make these workshops engaging and fun so that the children actively take part and learn. These stations will be critical to ensure our work on the Brigade is sustainable and has a long-lasting impact. As a part of the brigade, we will also be helping with the construction of public health projects such as clean water supplies.