The Virginia Commonwealth Brigade made its tri-annual (or ‘tranual’) journey to the frontera town of Pinares – approximately one hour from La Esperanza, Intibucá. The brigade was comprised of thirteen fourth year medical students, three third year residents and two family medicine attending physicians. In addition, we had five stellar translators (some old faces, some new ones): Josh, Alex, Daniel, Gus and Paulette.
VCU in Pinares is known for hiking out to rural villages in order to provide care, and their most recent brigade certainly embraced that tradition. The normal day entailed leaving one attending, one resident and a few medical students at the clinic to provide care, while the rest of the group trekked out to different villages in order to provide medical assistance as well as collect data for the CHI program. CHI clinics are usually set up at schools, where children progress through a variety of different stations (height/weight, hemoglobin, dental, medical, etc.).
During the weekend we spent a fantastic day at the Concepción market, as well as hiking around the clinic and, of course, a stop at the waterfall.
All in all it was a very positive brigade. The evaluations all demonstrated that each member had a unique, memorable and enriching experience with Shoulder to Shoulder (and that they loved their brigade assistant, of course).
“A great organization with welcoming, dedicated and engaged staff”
“Great trip! Would love to come back!”
University of Rochester (Oct. 21st- Nov. 4th, 2011)
The University of Rochester brigade was comprised of 2 attendings, 7 residents, 2 medical students, and 1 social worker. They spent their two weeks stationed in their affiliate community of San Jose, San Marcos. Through furthering their relationships with the community, they also oversaw many projects. Several of these projects include latrine building, cookstove building, a scholarship program, a microfinance project, and fish farm building. Their trip was complete with many meetings as a means to support existing projects and to discern possible ways of expansion in the future. Brigade members also saw around 100 patients in the clinic, attended to patients through home visits, hiked to the neighboring community of Las Delicias to oversee a partnership there, met with the scholarship students, and traveled to local schools to do a project with the classes and to give a health talk about proper injury care. The brigade stayed at the local school and at the newly built volunteer house, both complete with beautiful views of the mountains and surrounding areas. Through all of their hard work, the University of Rochester has clearly had a positive influence in San Jose and this relationship will continue to foster change in the future!
UC-Family Med/USC Brigade (October 8th-20th, 2011)
This was a diverse brigade comprised of residents, attendings, an opthamologist, and nursing and medical students. There were also ten translators from La Ceiba who were excellent at their job and added lots of fun and energy to the group. Despite non-stop rain beginning the first workday, this brigade stayed optimistic and was able to accomplish many things. They provided field clinics at six locations in Magdalena, Santa Lucia, and San Antonio as well as took turn at the Santa Lucia clinic, ran a health fair, gave hypertension clubs, performed several cleaning operations, and went on home visits. A brave few went for a hike on Saturday and everyone participated in painting the dining and living space in the clinic. While they had to leave a day early to avoid worsening road conditions, everyone at Shoulder to Shoulder truly appreciated their energy and enthusiasm through out their stay.
These are a few quotes from brigade members:
“Great team building, and a world-view changing experience”
“Everyone was warm and easy to approach”
“Everyone did a great job of helping to accommodate for changes in schedule.”