Join the Conversation: Impact

Feb 8, 2010 5:22:12 AM | central america Join the Conversation: Impact

To join the discussion, click on “Leave a Comment” at the bottom of the post. Global Brigades has created an unique opportunity for volunteers to impact the lives of others as well as their own lives. There are many moments and experiences that can impact and change your life, even help you to become who […]

To join the discussion, click on “Leave a Comment” at the bottom of the post.

Global Brigades has created an unique opportunity for volunteers to impact the lives of others as well as their own lives. There are many moments and experiences that can impact and change your life, even help you to become who you are today.

The interaction with local community members, the contact with nature, the cultural interchange, rough dirt-road trips, Central American food and  great team-work are some of the daily activities that we experience when volunteers take part in a brigade.

We experience moments that we will remember for a very long time, some changing the way we see life and for a lot of us, moments that we’ll always remember until the day we leave this world.

A few nights ago, I sat with a group of students and together we began to talk about experiences that have impacted our lives. I shared my experience about an one-and-a-half year old boy I met 4 years ago who weighed only 9 pounds.  He was in a very critical condition of malnutrition, cleft lip and equine foot. His mother, a single girl of 18, couldn’t feed him with normal food because he was unable to chew and she couldn’t afford special food to feed him. While we were in that medical brigade in the community of Buena Vista, I grabbed the mother and the child and immediately, transported them to the main hospital in the city. The child was put on a nutrition plan until he was able to have the proper surgeries and treatments. We followed-up the situations for a few months until the kid was ready for surgery.

Last month, while we were on a brigade in Buena Vista, I saw a group of kids playing soccer and happily wondering around, when I looked closer, I realize that one them was the same child that we took to the hospital 3 years ago. That is one of the experiences that has impacted my life and the life of this little boy.

Today, I want to invite you to share a GB related story, moment or any anecdote that you want to share. We want to hear the amazing stories of lives that GB has touched.   Come on! Let’s express it, tell us your story…

Enrique “Quique” Rodriguez
Executive Director and Co-Founder
Global Brigades

Written By: Guest Writer