Spring 2010 Synergy 18
Lydia Chow (dgmb) Honduras Central America Global Medical Brigades is an international network of more than 50 university clubs and volunteer organizations that provide communities in developing nations with sustainable health care solutions. Our current emphasis is in Honduras, where nearly 1,000 GMB volunteers travel annually to deliver services to our 40 communities. Our Duke chapter of Global Medical Brigades alone treated more than 3000 patients in four communities outside of Tegucigulpa in the past summer. Our group functioned like a mobile medical unit, setting up small temporary clinics to diagnose and treat patients at no cost. From in-take, to triage, to medical consultations, to filling the prescriptions, we experienced the many realms of the medical profession under the guidance of medical professionals.
I
have never been there, but it is so clear in my mind. Upon first landing, Honduras evokes little that one would expect when asked to picture a third-world country. Rows of signs advertising local chain restaurants and hotels greet incoming travelers next to the airport’s runway. Outside the airport, a brand new mall boasts neon signs of commercialized chains stores such as KFC and McDonalds. It is here at the capital, Tegucigalpa, that the effects of globalization are readily seen. After leaving the capital, however, the city begins to fade into the background of trees and vegetation. There are no paved roads, only dirt paths meandering deep into the mountainous rural areas. At least – that’s what I’ve been told. Before I entered Duke University, Honduras was the tiniest of blips on my radar. Having paid minimal attention to my high school World Cultures teacher as she confused terms such as “loess” with “lotus,” I could gesture vaguely at Central America if asked to pinpoint Honduras on a map. Yet as I speak to the members of Duke Global Medical Brigades (DGMB), they give me something far more than a point on a map. They give me a story – a multi-faceted origami constructed from pieces of each personal memory and experience – which I can hardly do justice to as I attempt to capture a summer into words. Last August, Duke Global Medical Brigades, a chapter of the national non-profit organization Global Brigades, raised approximately 230,000 dollars in medicines and supplies and, with the help of three volunteer physicians, traveled to Honduras to serve underprivileged communities. During the weeklong brigade, the team traveled to what has been identified by Global