OU Medical Brigades will travel to Honduras and Panama in May to do medical and dental work on the people indigenous to those countries.
The brigade is a section of Global Brigades, which is the world’s largest student-led global health and sustainable development organization, according to the Global Brigades website. The trip to Panama will begin on May 16 and last for one week, according to senior biology major Katie Smith, the president of the Panama trip. She said after getting through customs with the medicine the group will bring, the first order of business is to set up at the “compound” that Global Brigades provides.
“And then we’ll hit the ground running and open the clinic for three days, then have a closing ceremony and then come home,” Smith said.
Smith said the objective of the brigade is to create a sustainable environment for the people who live in Panama. Along with providing them medicine to better their current health, Smith said the groups will also teach the people techniques to further ensure a safe environment.
“We don’t want to go in and change anything, we just want to provide the people with the skillsets they need to have an empowered lifestyle,” Smith said.
The educational facet of the brigade will split adults and children into two groups, Smith said. She said they will teach children about nutrition, hygiene, exercise and clean water consumption, while adults will learn about prevalent chronic diseases in their geographic area such as hypertension and diabetes.
“It’s going to be really fast, but it’s going to be awesome,” Smith said.
Senior pre-dentistry major Eman Khan will attend the Honduras trip. She said the Honduran group will create teaching booths called “charlas,” where they will teach children about oral hygiene.
“We’re going to be contributing to this holistic program as a whole,” Khan said.
Khan said the Honduran brigade will echo the Panama brigade’s ideology in creating a sustainable environment for the indigenous people. She said that for last year’s Honduran brigade, in which she also participated, the volunteers got to tend to around 3,000 patients. More are expected this year due to the lengthened time of the brigade, she said.
Khan and Smith both said that while helping indigenous people is the main focus of the trips, they are most excited for the relationships they will develop with the people. Smith said that meeting people gave her the greatest joy during her trip to Ghana during Christmas break of 2013.
“We’re there to work, obviously … but it’s so interesting to be able to talk to them and figure out about their lifestyle,” Smith said.
Smith said the experience was eye-opening because of the attitudes of the Ghanaian people.
“They’re the happiest people you will ever meet,” Smith said. “They just put life into you because they have nothing … but they’re just so happy. It puts you in a new perspective.”
The Panama brigade will last from May 16 to May 22 and the Honduras brigade will last from May 11 to May 17.
