By Noah Augustin
Brooklyn College students may be aware of its study abroad programs, but what they may not have heard of is the group of students actively working in the medical field abroad aiding communities globally: BC’s Medical Brigades Club.
The club is part of the Global Medical Brigades, a network of volunteer university students from the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. who go on week-long trips to countries around the globe, including Honduras, Panama, Guatemala, Ghana, Belize, and Greece. They get the opportunity to shadow professional doctors as they help medically underserved communities. BC is home to 15 of these volunteer student brigadiers.
Gabriana Nieves, co-president of BC Medical Brigades and a psychology major, took her first trip with the brigade this past June to Belize, a Central American country. There they aided an indigenous, English-speaking locality called “Indian Creek” upon the locality’s leader requesting for help.
The brigadiers worked at a clinic two and a half hours from the sanctuary by car, which locals from different parts of Indian Creek would come to for medical treatment and examination. The students were assigned to one of the different stations. First was the intake station, where the names and I.D. numbers of patients were noted. Then, patients made their way to the next station, where the volunteers would take their temperature, blood pressure, height, weight, and glucose levels. At the end of this rotation, patients could go to the pharmacy and receive their medication. Though many of the brigadiers are studying medicine in the U.S., the aspect of culture shock accompanied them in their travels to a new country.
“[In the U.S.] people might consider them poor, but they would come to the clinic and start talking as if they’d known each other all their lives. Maybe their living situation is not the best, but the lives they’ve created are very valuable,” Nieves told The Vanguard.
The brigades stayed in a monkey sanctuary which ended up being void of monkeys because it was the wet season.
“It was like a camping trip. We slept on bunk beds and showered with rainwater. We drank rainwater too,” Mila Zlotnik, a pre-med student and the Brigade’s social media manager, said.
The populations they served often had to endure extreme conditions just to get the treatment that they needed, often spending an exhaustive amount of time and money to do so.
“Some of [the people] would have to go across national borders to find healthcare,” Nieves said. “Not only are they isolated from hospitals, but banks as well.” This can include using alternative means to accessing the far locations for healthcare. “In order to get to hospitals or banks they either have to spend money on bus tickets, or ride their bike there. And riding is exhausting,” Zlotnik said.
BC’s Medical Brigades’ next trip is to Greece, where Nieves will be one of the leading brigadiers. Students will be shadowing a dentist, OBGYN, optometrist, and pediatrician in the center of Athens. To fund their trips, the club relies on donations, many of which come from the BC student body.
“The Medical Brigades are a fundraising-based club so we fundraise throughout the semesters to be able to afford our trip at the beginning of the summer,” Nieves said.
The Brigadiers will be treating the many refugees and migrants from around the Mediterranean, as well as Ukraine once in Greece. The refugees, some of which are minors without their parents, will speak many different languages, and unlike patients in Belize, won’t know much English. Zlotnik, who speaks Russian, will be communicating with the Ukrainian migrants. The refugees will have just endured very long, sometimes life-threatening voyages to the country.
All of these obstacles are no discouragement to the brigade, whose dedication to helping patients around the globe is a testament to their goal of making sure that everyone is provided the healthcare that they need. To the brigadiers, the experience is of a lifetime, exceeding their expectations of the journey to help others.
“However much you think you’re going to get out of the experience. You get so much more,” Zlotnik said.
Students interested in learning more about BC Medical Brigades can follow them on Instagram at @bcmedicalbrigades.