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Before you get started, check to see whether there is an existing Global Brigades club at your school that you could get involved in:

Architecture __Business __Dental __Environmental __Medical __Law __Public Health __Water

There’s no club at your school yet? This is your chance to start one!


Health Brigades

Health brigades are implemented in Honduras, in villages without access to medicine otherwise. Volunteers are encouraged to bring down a multidisciplinary team to not only conduct medical/dental relief work, but to improve the water, sanitation, and overall public health infrastructure. The volunteers have access to our electronic patient records system to monitor health trends and pull patient history.

Our Vision: Over the next 5 years, Global Dental Brigades will supplement a holistic model for health care in more than 40 Honduran communities. In conjunction with medical, business, and environmental programming, dental brigades will provide Hondurans with dental hygiene care, proper oral hygiene instructions and extractions for the periodontally involved cases. Proper preventative dental care will help stop the most common chronic disease at its root, protect the children from severe dental decay before 12 years of age and provide the foundation to start a new trend of passing down proper oral hygiene care through families. In this way, we can help to empower Honduran communities with a self motivating desire care for their teeth and overall health. A Dental Brigade consists of dental and dental hygiene student volunteers and dental professionals to provide dental care to in-need communities. The group functions like a mobile dental unit, setting up small clinics to diagnose and treat patients at no cost. From in-take, to triage, to anesthesia, to dental treatment, the volunteers experience the many realms of the dental profession under the guidance of licensed dental professionals._Global Medical Brigades is an organization dedicated to improving the overall health infrastructures of our 40 communities. It is our goal, by 2012, to install in each of our villages a permanent clinic for primary care. In addition, our organization is working to improve the water/sanitation , and economic infrastructures in the villages. _During your 7-8 day brigade, you will work alongside community members and our public health staff to empower a rural community to improve their own quality of life. The brigade begins on arrival day with an introduction to the public health struggles in Central America, and especially Honduras where the staff and students will discuss relevant issues in global health. The first day will consist of group members conducting needs assessment surveys in a community that public health will be working with in the future. The following 4 days will be spent in our current community implementing four construction projects; latrines, water storage units, concrete floors, and clean-cooking stoves. These projects will be completed in one or various homes depending on the needs of each family, and students will work alongside family members to make these projects a reality. Following project construction, students will lead educational workshops for the adults and children of the community teaching basic sanitation and hygiene practices, offering nutritional advice, and educating them on basic disease prevention. During the educational day students will also have some free time to spend with the families and deliver the care packages consisting of clothing, shoes, school supplies, and hygiene supply donations. Our goal in PHB is to offer students the chance to gain real-life experience in community and international development and to implement sustainable public health solutions. In one week, you will learn the stories of the families you work with, and you will make a tangible difference in the lives of these people you have come to know._Global Water Brigades is powered by groups of students and professionals dedicated to finding and implementing clean water and sanitation solutions. Each of these groups comes on a "Brigades" to Honduras to support the development of rural communities. Each Brigade matches the student-led group with local communities, international water experts and a supportive Global Water Brigades staff on a 7 day trip to Honduras. The trip takes students to several rural villages to conduct initial surveys, plan a project and implement a water solution. Through this process students will be introduced to real world public health, engineering and development issues. The Brigade begins with an opening introduction to Honduras, water and the issues we will be facing. Your group of students will then explore a village in need of a water project, assess the current situation and design and implement a clean water solution. This process will take you door-to-door and face-to-face with the Honduran people and help you understand the realities of the global water struggle. You will also work alongside the best water experts in Honduras to find life-changing solutions and implement them. During every Brigade we work for change.


Development Brigades

The development brigades are implemented in Panama via several partner nonprofit organizations, such as Earth Train, Peace Corps, Patronato de Nutricion and the Congreso General Kuna that help identify projects and oversee them when the volunteers aren’t “brigading.” Volunteers from the four development disciplines work together to assist the microenterprises in the communities by providing business consultations, capital investments, legal guidance, and architectural designs while teaching the importance of environmental preservation and conducting reforestation projects.

A brigade is a one-week trip to Panama, during which you will not only work with a local community to develop and construct needed architectural works, but also experience the country's native culture and natural beauty. There are two Brigade classifications, Question and Solution. The Question Brigade allows you to gain insight and collect information for the design and construction of your project. You will carry out interviews with the client and community, conduct an extensive site survey, and assist in the construction of an in-process GAB project. With the knowledge gained, you will be able to compose an efficient and appropriate architectural solution to the given problem, to be built on your Solution Brigade. Your project will be constructed on the Solution Brigade. With the assistance of the participating community, partner NGO members, and an other GAB club, you will either complete construction, or progress the structure to a point that it can be easily completed following your departure. Through the building techniques learned during construction, you will be empowering the community to construct similar projects in the future without GAB assistance._A “Brigade” is typically a one-week experience in a community * GBB projects entail hands-on, one-on-one work with developing villages and their micro-enterprises * -A natural honey business located in the mountainous regions of Zurlular * -A cattle farm supported by local villagers and orphaned boys * -A candle-making business whose proceeds fund a battered woman’s shelter. One important feature of the brigade is the ability to leave behind both tangible and intangible benefits. After each brigade, you can leave knowing your left both intangible support (by way of workshops and training) and tangible support (the stove, truck or whatever you decided to invest in with the Community Investment Fund)._Environmental Brigades are one-week experiences abroad that include hands-on work alongside community members to promote environmentally sustainable development. Environmental Brigades currently operates in Panama, each with a specific emphasis that enriches other Brigade programs in the region. In Panama, Environmental Brigades complement Business, Law, and Architecture Brigades by focusing on socio-economic challenges linked to resource depletion, while implementing environmentally sustainable strategies for development. Projects include reforestation, rainforest preservation, energy-efficient design, eco-tourism and organic agriculture extension. Volunteers work in a variety of landscapes, ranging from virgin rainforests to urban beaches, each presenting different challenges for the survival of native species and future generations._A Law Brigade consists of pre-law and law students who collaborate with legal professionals to work with disadvantaged communities do develop and implement legal empowerment strategies. Law Brigades are one-week experiences abroad that include hands-on work alongside community members to promote legal empowerment. Law Brigades currently operate in Panama with projects that complement Business, Environmental and Architecture Brigades to alleviate poverty and foster human rights and community development. Law Brigades programs create first-hand opportunities for youth and civil society to understand domestic and international legal issues in developing regions including international humanitarian law; migration and refugee issues; business licensing and organic certification procedures; micro-enterprise laws; and environmental and human rights concerns. We empower college students and law students to build relationships with established local and international legal, humanitarian, environmental and development organizations, and provide opportunities to work together with communities served by these organizations.

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