JMU Global Medical Brigades in Belize for Landen

This summer, at the end of May, I will be traveling to Belize with Global Medical Brigades. While in Belize we will be working clinic days, assuring community members are getting adequate health care. We will also be teaching communities the importance of health and how to sustain a healthy lifestyle with their living conditions. James Madison University is a chapter of Global Medical Brigades, an international movement of students and medical professionals working alongside local communities and staff to implement sustainable health systems. We work in remote, rural, and under resourced communities in Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, Ghana, and Belize who would otherwise have limited to no access to health care. Each community receives a brigade every 3 to 4 months where hundreds of patients are provided access to healthcare and volunteers deliver public health workshops. Electronic patient records are collected for future visitations and to monitor overall community health trends. In conjunction with our Medical Program, Global Brigades also supports communities with economic development, sanitation and clean water projects, and uniquely implements these programs in a holistic model to meet a community’s health and economic goals. Our model systematically builds community ownership and collaboratively executes programs with the end goal of sustainably evolving to a relationship of impact monitoring. To learn more, please visit www.globalbrigades.org.