Public Announcement and We Need Your Help.

So some of you may have known, I did a mission trip back in March with the group Global Medical Brigades with the students from University of California San Diego. The current president for this year, Brittanie, emailed me today saying thanks for supporting and serving with them this year for the community in Honduras. 


Anyways, they're in need for Nurses and especially Physicians who can come and volunteer their time for 1 week to serve the needy people in Honduras. Next year during Spring Break for USCD, they will fly and provide medical needs for Honduras. Rumor has it, it may switch to Nicaragua. Either or, they'll be serving the people in need. 


Here I attach the email she sent to me,

Hi you guys! Hope you're both having the most amazing summer!

First, thank you both for all of your hard work being nurses on the brigade and your continued commitment to the org even after it was all over. I'm taking over as president for this coming year and am looking for medical professionals to come along with us. Right now, I have a few nurses who have shown interest (because nurses are awesome), but we are in dire need of physicians. Below is sort of a summary email that I've been sending out to people who have mentioned wanting to come with for next year. You can pick and choose which parts of it you may want to include but it'd be really great if you could spread the word and help us out! Say, cost of the trip might not be necessary to mention until later haha. 

Sending my love your way,

Britt

Basically, we are the UCSD chapter of Global Medical Brigades which is under the 

umbrella organization Global Brigades. It is a 501(c)3 non-profit and 

works in under served, rural communities outside of Honduras' capital 

city, Tegucigalpa. The program has been well established in the 

communities that we work in with people in that community expecting to 

see a student-led clinic every 4-6 months. 

It is a 1 week trip to Honduras, from March 24th to March 31st, 2013 

(UCSD's spring break).  There are a few days dedicated to travel time, 

in-country prep, and local cultural activities such as working alongside 

community members in one of Global Brigades other projects like latrine 

building or construction work on sites of future community centers. 

There are 3 days working in a very rural area providing medical and 

dental care (dentists provided) to the local families, alongside 2 

Honduran physicians. 

Normally, nurses are in charge of triage and help with taking patients' 

symptoms and vitals like blood pressure, blood glucose, weight, etc. 

Responsibilities also include organizing students, making sure they are 

doing the vitals correctly, and helping with any patients who may be be 

very ill, have trouble breathing, or scared.

Physicians handle consultations and may refer patients needing further assistance to hospitals in the city. 

Most patients generally 

suffer from heart disease, migraines, asthma, and muscle pains due to 

poor nutrition, unsanitary conditions, and hard labor for the men 

working in the fields. 

The trip typically costs around $1500-$1600 depending on the price of 

flight tickets. This price includes absolutely everything on your trip 

except for souvenirs and snacks you may want to purchase from local 

vendors. Half of the money pays for the flight there which is typically 

close to $750. We recommend that you book with us, so as to get a good 

group rate, and it's easier to organize travel, but its not necessary. 

The rest of the money is dedicated to food (3 meals a day, plus snacks), 

transportation (pick up/drop off at airport, travel to clinic and 

cultural sites), security (we have 2 police officers with us at all 

times, and an addition 2-3 military personnel on brigade days and to 

guard the compound where we stay), and dorming.   

No foreign language is necessary. The patients speak only Spanish, but 

nurses from the last 2 years have had little to no background in the 

language. Most of the undergraduate students have studied Spanish in 

school, and some of the undergraduate students and in-country organizers 

are bilingual and can help you at any time, but using hand and body 

motions to communicate has been essential. I've also noticed that you 

really only need to remember a few key phrases and the rest you can ask.

We serve close to 1,000 patients over those 3 days so you can expect to 

work hard, but its truly humbling to see what sort of conditions they 

must face and the impact that we make. 

We are currently in the process of creating a new website but you can 

see some pictures and general info here: http://sddo47.wix.com/ucsdgmb  

And you can find more information at the global brigades national 

website here: http://www.globalbrigades.org/programs/medical/objective/

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns whatsoever :)

Best,

Brittanie

You can read my post about my mission trip here and here.

If you have any friends or family or colleagues who are Nurses or Physicians Assistance or Physicians (Residents included) interested in doing a Medical Missionary, they can contact me through my blog or email me at bolubyrima@gmail.com. I'm thinking most likely I will do this again (if time and money permits), especially with this group of students. They were awesome and eager to learn. Most of them are Pre-Med students. 1 student was even an Italian Major (Hi, Mauricio!) Honestly, it was one of the best things I ever done in my life. Not only for the people of Honduras, but also for myself. It gave me this nice happiness that I've never had. Like I made a difference in someone's life.

Please please please do share and spread the word.

PS: This Medical Missionary is non-denominational. It's purely Medical. And learning. And just being a great human being.

xo,
Rima

Things I Love Monday: Honduras Edition (week 12-13)

Bucket list: Checked!

One of my dreams is to serve a poor community in a Medical Mission Trip. That particular dream came true this past week. From March 25th - April 1st, I was able to achieve this task, and boy, I am very happy that I did. 

As you probably know, I've been talking about my trip to Honduras since November. So here I present you some of the pictures that I've taken during the trip. I guess this is my souvenir to all of you.

rainy day in LA

My dad dropped me off at LAX and I remember it was raining like a mad house here in SoCal. Mother nature was going crazy. Mild anxiety and nervousness kicked in on the way to the airport due to several things: leaving all of my loved ones behind (plus knowing that in some random time, my crazy neighbor can maybe, well, go crazy) with no means of telecommunication, my future encounter with tropical bugs (eek!), figuring out how to manage my skin and hair (yes, this is a serious condition! haha) and the fact that I'm going to spend a full week with people that I have never met in my life. 

suitcases full of donated medical supplies!

Once I got to the airport, after roaming around and texting the group's leader, 3 students from UCSD approached me and asked if I was Rima. After confirming, I gave my dad a big hug and joined the rest of the Brigades from UCSD. For those who don't know, I did my trip with students (mostly Pre-Meds) from UC of San Diego through Global Brigades. I was so happy that these students accepted me in their circle. I could've not ask for a better group of people. These students are amazingly funny, smart and awesome. 

After a transit in Atlanta, where I almost got smashed by the airport train's door, we headed to San Pedro Sula, in north Honduras. Small airport. Right upon exiting the plane, I embraced the damp, humid air and got all giddy. "This is it!" I told myself. Good thing the airport offered free wi-fi, I texted the Pillow right away and did some cute text exchanges. I got kind of teary because I know that I will miss him through out the week. But what do you do... A fun adventure was ahead.