In the News

The LSU chapter of the Global Water Brigades traveled to Panama from March 13 to March 19 to repair a water system for a rural indigenous community in Embera Puru in the Darjen region. This trip was part of a larger effort the Global Brigades is making to assist this impoverished area.

Have you ever considered volunteering? Whether it’s for a church, school, or another place, many organizations benefit from (and in some cases, completely depend on) volunteers to help. Volunteers also benefit from donating their time and effort to a cause they support: they gain a better understanding of the situation and culture surrounding the cause –– especially if it’s a volunteer program abroad. If you volunteer in a country where another language is spoken, you’ll also probably start to pick it up and actually learn it!

Global Medical Brigades is an international movement of students and medical professionals working alongside local communities and staff to implement sustainable health systems. The PLU chapter is a student-run organization that strives to promote global health equality and connects students with opportunities to travel internationally to provide assistance through clinics and public health activities. The PLU chapter also functions as a support and resource network for pre-med students and connects students with alumni doctors and medical students.

Boston University Global Medical Brigades chapter is gearing up for a trip to Guatemala this May — its first in-person brigade in over two years — following a series of cancellations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

What if the words you use every day in your business with clients do not translate perfectly into other languages?

This is one of the international business consulting challenges that Martha Reeves’ capstone course experienced this past semester as they worked with Global Brigades Panama. They held remote meetings with clients in rural locations and communicated solely through translators as they gained valuable lessons and experiences they will take with them into their future careers.

Oscar Ruben Velasquez, an alum from El Paso Community College, fundraised along with other students from New Mexico State University to travel to Guatemala through an organization called NMSU Global Brigades, a chapter designed to gather up students interested in medicine and send them to underdeveloped countries to experience medicine abroad.

“NMSU Global Brigades which allows students to travel to foreign countries and underdeveloped communities to provide medical care. Recently we went to Guatemala and provided medical care for the community members,” Velasquez said.

Biomedical Sciences major Bethlehem Dawit is on the pre-health track at Old Dominion University. This past summer she and 14 other ODU students traveled to Honduras as part of Global Medical Brigades, a non-profit on-campus organization whose mission is to provide primary health care services to small, under-resourced, rural communities with limited to no access to medical care. Dawit serves as president of ODU’s chapter.

University of Florida pre-med student Michael Saba will never forget the smile shot his way by a little boy in Panama during his time there with Global Medical Brigades. Saba is one of the 83,000-plus students from 500-plus schools involved in Global Brigades, the largest student-funded humanitarian organization in the world, according to a recent press release.

University of Florida pre-med student Michael Saba will never forget that smile. The biology major was not on a first date, at a fraternity party or in a Gainesville bar, he was in Panama with Global Medical Brigades.

“We were in a remote area of the Darien region and hundreds of patients lined up to see the doctors and dentists we were shadowing,” Saba, a senior from Tampa, recalled. “Most days, we took vitals, helped with triage or screened patients.”

On that morning, Saba was helping dentists administer fluoride treatments to patients in the dental clinic. “There was this little boy – eight maybe nine years old,” Saba recalled. “At first, he was extremely nervous but after he received the fluoride treatment that completely changed.”

Traveling to Tecpan, Guatemala with the MSU chapter of Global Brigades, was another moment of revelation that solidified my decision to pursue a career in medicine. The purpose of the trip was to work with a local community to provide support and teachings designed to empower people in need. Giving back to others is at the heart of what bleeding green is all about.