Global Brigades – the student-led development organisation
Feb 22 2012 |
Written by
Louise Spratt
credit to Global Brigades
credit to Global Brigades
Global Brigades is the largest student-led global health and sustainable development organisation in the world. It began as a collaboration between an American medical student and one Honduran man, but the charity spread rapidly throughout America and Canada. In 2009, 1,819 volunteers travelled with Global Brigades serving 124 communities in Central America and helping over 50,000 people in these rural communities.
The charity runs nine different brigade programs: architecture, business, dental, environment, law, medical, microfinance, public health and water. Global Brigades has a vision to improve equality of life, by empowering student volunteers to address key components of good health and work within local communities to achieve sustainable improvements across the world. The sheer size of the charity and its multiple branches from so many different universities has meant that the communities it reaches can receive continual support all year round. Similarly, the work of Global Brigades targets a wide range of social aspects and ultimately helps to improve the health and well-being of the communities they work in, placing a strong emphasis on a holistic impact.
The last couple of years have been an exciting time for Global Brigades. The success of the charity has led to an expansion; both in terms of the countries in which they work, with brigades now travelling to Ghana, but also in terms of the countries the brigades come from. Worldwide, there are currently 480 universities involved and eleven universities in the UK, including Birmingham University, now organizing brigades.
Last summer Global Brigades Birmingham sent out a team of medical students to both Ghana and Honduras to provide access to health care for people living in rural communities. We set up and ran mobile clinics and pharmacies, saw and cared for over 1000 patients, and contributed to health promotion work in the communities we visited. Many of us took the opportunity to travel after our brigades.
This summer we will be running medical brigades to Ghana and Honduras again, and are now in the process of recruiting volunteers. Currently our medical brigade is the most established program in Birmingham. Although we started out in the medical school, our next aim is to involve students from other departments in the projects we are running. Global Brigades Birmingham is a charity giving all Birmingham students the opportunity to travel to some amazing countries, volunteer within local communities, and make a real impact on the lives of the people living in those communities.
Our water brigade is new to Birmingham this summer. On our water brigade we will travel to Ghana and help provide communities with sufficient clean water in four main ways: water treatment facilities, community leader training, education, and infrastructural development. Water brigades volunteers will help to design and construct water systems to prevent water related illnesses occurring in areas with limited access to clean water. This summer we will be running a water brigade to Ghana and we are looking for volunteers from all departments in the University to travel with us on this project.
In addition, our microfinance brigade is also a new brigade set to run this summer. Microfinance brigades are involved in setting up community banking systems in communities and providing access to loans, financial literacy programs, and education in order to improve community production and develop a culture promoting financial sustainability. We are looking for people interested in taking part in this brigade and assisting the current committee in the organisation of this project. This program will take place in Ghana this summer.
Each of these brigade programs, medical, water and microfinance, will run 23rd June – 2nd July 2012. They all offer you an amazing international volunteering experience and after the brigade there is the opportunity to travel. Any student from any discipline is welcome to take part in any of the brigades.
If you are interested in coming on one of our three brigades, or if you would be interested in helping set up another Global Brigades program, then we would love to hear from you. If you have any questions or would like any more information then please do not hesitate to contact the Global Brigades Birmingham Committee. We will be running information sessions for our brigades soon so if you are interested make sure you get in touch or join the Facebook group so we can give you the details.
Email: globalbrigadesbirmingham@gmail.com
Facebook: Global Brigades Birmingham
Global Brigades website: www.globalbrigades.org
Shortlink: http://redbrick.me/38831
Written by
Louise Spratt
on Feb 22 2012. Filed under Abroad, Travel.
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