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Hello family and friends, Sierra here! :) My sophomore year at UC Berkeley is already in full swing and is off to a great start so far. This year, I joined Global Brigades, the world’s largest student-led global health and sustainable development organization. I am a part of the Global Health Brigades group at Cal, a group of student volunteers and professionals that work to empower communities in developing countries with programs that improve their overall quality of life while respecting local culture.
As a part of this organization, I will be traveling to Honduras on a 9-day medical/public health brigade in the beginning of January 2017. I, along with the other students in this organization, will be working with our partner communities in Honduras to provide long-term public health solutions and medical treatment to individuals that currently have very limited access to basic healthcare services.
For the medical portion of the brigade, we will be providing healthcare services by establishing mobile clinics. At each of these clinics, we will help with intake and triage in which we will record patient information and perform preliminary tests to determine each patient's weight, temperature, blood pressure, and blood glucose level before seeing a doctor for further consultation. During the consultation portion of the medical brigade, we will receive the opportunity to shadow doctors and learn about infections/illnesses that are not as prevalent in the United States.
In addition to this, we will also help fill prescriptions and provide patients with instructions to take their medications. Another extremely important part of the medical brigade is the "Health Promotion, Disease Prevention" section in which we will provide educational workshops on personal hygiene, nutrition, water sanitation, and other forms of disease prevention. These workshops are intended to empower participants to lead healthier lives. At the end of each workshop, we will distribute toothbrushes/toothpaste, soap, hairbrushes, and other hygiene products.
This year, we will be partnering with another university going on a dental brigade, so we will also experience the opportunity of assisting dentists in teeth extractions, in fluoride treatments, and in providing educational workshops on dental hygiene for children.
The second part of the brigade I will be going on embodies providing long-term public health solutions to certain families within a designated village. In the course of this time, we will build and install latrines, water storage units, cement floors, and clean-burning stoves, depending on the specific needs of each household.
This work will greatly benefit households for years to come, as the latrines, cement floors, and water storage units help households maintain good hygiene and sanitation, which ultimately helps prevent the spread of infectious diseases and parasites. Clean-burning stoves reduce the risk of respiratory disease and also require less wood, which helps decrease deforestation.
More than half of the Honduran population lives in poverty, with black and indigenous populations suffering from marked economic and educational inequality and inequality in access to services. However, with your help, I can make this trip possible and can help provide long-term public health solutions and medical treatment to individuals that currently have very limited access to basic healthcare services.
The money raised for this trip will go towards the total brigade cost of participating and traveling to Honduras, which consists of a program fee, the flight fee, and a medical donation. I am hoping to reach my goal of $2500 by Monday, December 12th, 2016.
As a student that is a Public Health major at UC Berkeley, and on a pre-PA path, medicine and caring for others have always been two facets of my life that I am extremely pasionate about. This trip is immensely important to me, as it would allow me to put my desire to help others into play, while practicing the field of study that I have been interested in my entire life: medicine. This trip will enable me to serve others in a way that is hollistically beneficial, as I would be able to help others help themselves by providing sustainable and high quality initiatives to these developing communities.
There is a lot that can be learned from these developing communities, and at the same time, there is a lot that can be done to support them. Global Brigade's motto is, "Students empowering communities, communities empowering students." The whole point of this brigade is to improve quality of life in under-resourced communities by mobilizing students through skill-based service programs, like the medical and public health ones. Together, we can enrich and improve the lives of so many individuals, but this trip is not possible without your help!
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or for more information about the medical/public health brigade.
Thank you SO MUCH for your time and support!
-Sierra :)
As a part of this organization, I will be traveling to Honduras on a 9-day medical/public health brigade in the beginning of January 2017. I, along with the other students in this organization, will be working with our partner communities in Honduras to provide long-term public health solutions and medical treatment to individuals that currently have very limited access to basic healthcare services.
For the medical portion of the brigade, we will be providing healthcare services by establishing mobile clinics. At each of these clinics, we will help with intake and triage in which we will record patient information and perform preliminary tests to determine each patient's weight, temperature, blood pressure, and blood glucose level before seeing a doctor for further consultation. During the consultation portion of the medical brigade, we will receive the opportunity to shadow doctors and learn about infections/illnesses that are not as prevalent in the United States.
In addition to this, we will also help fill prescriptions and provide patients with instructions to take their medications. Another extremely important part of the medical brigade is the "Health Promotion, Disease Prevention" section in which we will provide educational workshops on personal hygiene, nutrition, water sanitation, and other forms of disease prevention. These workshops are intended to empower participants to lead healthier lives. At the end of each workshop, we will distribute toothbrushes/toothpaste, soap, hairbrushes, and other hygiene products.
This year, we will be partnering with another university going on a dental brigade, so we will also experience the opportunity of assisting dentists in teeth extractions, in fluoride treatments, and in providing educational workshops on dental hygiene for children.
The second part of the brigade I will be going on embodies providing long-term public health solutions to certain families within a designated village. In the course of this time, we will build and install latrines, water storage units, cement floors, and clean-burning stoves, depending on the specific needs of each household.
This work will greatly benefit households for years to come, as the latrines, cement floors, and water storage units help households maintain good hygiene and sanitation, which ultimately helps prevent the spread of infectious diseases and parasites. Clean-burning stoves reduce the risk of respiratory disease and also require less wood, which helps decrease deforestation.
More than half of the Honduran population lives in poverty, with black and indigenous populations suffering from marked economic and educational inequality and inequality in access to services. However, with your help, I can make this trip possible and can help provide long-term public health solutions and medical treatment to individuals that currently have very limited access to basic healthcare services.
The money raised for this trip will go towards the total brigade cost of participating and traveling to Honduras, which consists of a program fee, the flight fee, and a medical donation. I am hoping to reach my goal of $2500 by Monday, December 12th, 2016.
As a student that is a Public Health major at UC Berkeley, and on a pre-PA path, medicine and caring for others have always been two facets of my life that I am extremely pasionate about. This trip is immensely important to me, as it would allow me to put my desire to help others into play, while practicing the field of study that I have been interested in my entire life: medicine. This trip will enable me to serve others in a way that is hollistically beneficial, as I would be able to help others help themselves by providing sustainable and high quality initiatives to these developing communities.
There is a lot that can be learned from these developing communities, and at the same time, there is a lot that can be done to support them. Global Brigade's motto is, "Students empowering communities, communities empowering students." The whole point of this brigade is to improve quality of life in under-resourced communities by mobilizing students through skill-based service programs, like the medical and public health ones. Together, we can enrich and improve the lives of so many individuals, but this trip is not possible without your help!
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or for more information about the medical/public health brigade.
Thank you SO MUCH for your time and support!
-Sierra :)