History
Global Brigades started with one program: Global Medical Brigades. A secular, international network of university clubs that travel to developing countries to provide health care in communities without regular access otherwise, GMB evolved out of a long-standing relationship with one of Honduras’ most reputable nonprofit organizations, Sociedad Amigos de los Niños (SAN).
Many college students joined the relief effort immediately following the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed over 12,000 people and displaced tens of thousands more, but no formal program existed for them to lead their own brigades or carry out long-term programming in the villages they served. This changed in 2003, when an inspired group of students from Marquette University returned from a medical brigade with an Indianapolis church and created a club on their campus to perpetuate a program of international health relief. That year, the group led two medical brigades treating more than 3,000 patients and laid the foundation for Global Brigades’ programming.
Through 2004-2005, members of what would become the Board of Directors of Global Brigades, worked with SAN to establish an official medical brigade department to develop sustainable programming tailored for university students to implement. They formalized processes for needs assessments, established relationships with permanent clinics to sponsor referrals for patients with needs beyond the capacity of the brigade, developed a patient records system to monitor health trends, and broadened its mission to also improve the water, sanitation, and overall public health infrastructure.
Meanwhile in North America, the grassroots movement was spreading and some of the first of our now over 122 universities started adopting the GMB program. In 2007, GMB officially spun-off from the medical brigade department of Sociedad Amigos de los Niños and formalized the U.S. entity, Global Brigades, LLC, and developed an autonomous Board of Directors.
This shift also represented a movement towards a holistic service model, expanding its scope of opportunities beyond medical relief to include business, water, architecture, law and environmental programs.
Many college students joined the relief effort immediately following the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed over 12,000 people and displaced tens of thousands more, but no formal program existed for them to lead their own brigades or carry out long-term programming in the villages they served. This changed in 2003, when an inspired group of students from Marquette University returned from a medical brigade with an Indianapolis church and created a club on their campus to perpetuate a program of international health relief. That year, the group led two medical brigades treating more than 3,000 patients and laid the foundation for Global Brigades’ programming.
Through 2004-2005, members of what would become the Board of Directors of Global Brigades, worked with SAN to establish an official medical brigade department to develop sustainable programming tailored for university students to implement. They formalized processes for needs assessments, established relationships with permanent clinics to sponsor referrals for patients with needs beyond the capacity of the brigade, developed a patient records system to monitor health trends, and broadened its mission to also improve the water, sanitation, and overall public health infrastructure.
Meanwhile in North America, the grassroots movement was spreading and some of the first of our now over 122 universities started adopting the GMB program. In 2007, GMB officially spun-off from the medical brigade department of Sociedad Amigos de los Niños and formalized the U.S. entity, Global Brigades, LLC, and developed an autonomous Board of Directors.
This shift also represented a movement towards a holistic service model, expanding its scope of opportunities beyond medical relief to include business, water, architecture, law and environmental programs.
www.globalbrigades.org, http://globalbrigades.wikidot.com, www.empowered.org