Global Brigades is one of the best experiences one could ever have, and this is not a bold statement. The programme gives its participants the opportunity to use their technical skills to create an impact, while simultaneously immersing themselves in the culture and language of the country. This is just an addition to the core of what the Legal Empowerment Brigade and the Engineering Brigade in Honduras aim to achieve.
One student who saw particular value in the training was Richard Brito, a senior majoring in psychology and minoring in public administration with intentions to earn his master’s degree in social work. In 2018, Brito, a student ambassador for FSU’s Student Resilience Project, brought Medical Brigades to FSU, a campus chapter of Global Brigades, the largest student nonprofit group dedicated to helping vulnerable communities worldwide.
“The work of Global Brigades is dynamic and important,” Brito said. “Teaching students about trauma and resilience through the Resilience Project and the professional certification helps us provide better services to the communities we serve on our trips abroad. It’s wonderful how the projects dovetail. They are like pieces of the same puzzle.”
Students in the Global Brigades program are trained throughout the academic year in preparation to travel abroad during the summer semester and help people with human necessities, such as access to water, building repairs, and health and small business education.
From traditional tacos from Mexico, to chicken and vegetables from China, to egg rolls from Vietnam, people tasted, and shared, food from all around the world at the festival.
At the Panama booth, people could try a breakfast medley of hot dogs, broccoli, rice and eggs. Students with the Global Medical Brigades said they ate that dish everyday when they were in Panama this year setting up clinics for people who needed healthcare.
“I think it’s important to talk about our differences, and coming together as a community. They say America’s a melting pot, but we don’t really know about other cultures when we’re sitting here,” said Hannah Langer, co-president of the Global Medical Brigades at Hastings College.
The New Jersey Innovation Institute is a not-for-profit “NJIT corporation focused on helping private enterprise discover what’s possible,” by sharing innovative ideas within the business’s respective sector to pursue new market opportunities, says Don Sebastian, the President of NJII. Generally, NJII’s work focuses on generating commercial success. Its Healthcare Division seeks to improve the quality and cost of health care, a task which has required much research and reflection on health care accessibility.
However, it was exactly this evaluation of the health care field that inspired and drove support for the pop-up clinic. NJII’s project manager, Inaceli Tubilleja, explained that NJII noted a “significant gap in healthcare access, access to healthcare data and a gap in health literacy.”
I grew up curious about the world and the idea of poverty. In North America, we are exposed to “poverty” through pictures painted of starving children around the world. Yet these images have never felt real to me and there has always been a disconnect between them and my life here in Victoria.
I can remember clubs day in my first year of university where I took pamphlets from every organization that offered trips volunteering abroad. I never once considered the impact of these trips and naively joined UVic Global Brigades that first year. Four years later, I am still with the same organization, but with a very different understanding of ethical volunteering and sustainable development.
