MEDICAL BRIGADES
Global Medical Brigades provides a holistic model for sustainable health care in under-served rural communities by conducting preliminary needs assessments, treating patients to the highest ethical standards, sponsoring referrals to those with needs beyond our capability, recording data for the production of quantitative reports, and working with other GB programs to improve the water, sanitation, and economic infrastructures. In the past Dalhousie Global Brigades has ran mobile clinics in rural villages in Honduras with the Mayo Clinic and led the first North American brigade to Ghana partnering with King’s Medical and Dental student from the UK to offer basic care and education to the village of Ekumfi Abaukwa.
DENTAL BRIGADES
Dental Brigades currently works alongside of Medical Brigades to provide comprehensive health care to the communities we serve in rural Honduras and Ghana. Dental Brigades provides our patients with dental hygiene care, preventative education, restorative care to the teeth that can be saved and extractions for the ones that cannot. Proper preventative dental care helps protect children from severe dental decay and hopefully start a trend of passing down proper oral hygiene care through families. In this way, we can help to empower Honduran and Ghanaian communities with a self-motivated desire to care for their teeth and overall health. In the past Dalhousie Global Brigades has had a dental stations on our brigades in Honduras and Ghana.
PUBLIC HEALTH BRIGADES
Public Health Brigades aims to develop sustainable health solutions and establish a standard of health quality with an emphasis on preventative methods and education in rural communities by engaging the efforts of both volunteers and community members. Side-by-side with community members, volunteers improve the overall infrastructure within the home through the construction of four projects: eco-stoves, latrines, water storage units and concrete floors. The four projects were chosen based on observations of medical brigade patient records, which illustrated high levels of respiratory, chagas and other preventable diseases caused by poor in-home health infrastructure. Between brigades the in-country team provides follow-up to ensure the maintenance of the structures and work to find funding that will complement the health goals of the community to perpetuate future construction.In both Honduras and Ghana public health education was part of our brigade. In Ghana we spent a day at the end focused solely on public health. In the future we are hoping to send brigades solely focused on public health to Honduras and/or Ghana.
WATER BRIGADES
Water Brigades is a movement of passionate students and professional volunteers from around the world dedicated to improving access to clean water and sanitation. Our mission is to unite students and under-resourced communities to develop and implement clean water projects through community assessments, water quality monitoring, water treatment, infrastructural development, community leader training, and hygiene, sanitation and water education. In the past we have seen a major need for water brigades so we are hoping to send a water brigade to Honduras, Ghana and/or Panama.
This photo shows the drinking water in a home we visited in Ghana.
This photo shows the drinking water in a home we visited in Ghana.