In the community of Sahumerio, brigaders worked on building 4 composting latrines serving 21+ direct beneficiaries. Brigaders also helped educate the community about the new latrines by presenting a skit to adults and kids on how to use them. Brigaders made posters with sanitary and maintenance instructions for the latrines so that the community has the knowledge to care for the latrines throughout the year. Environmental Brigades also left a sustainable impact in the community by training 19 high school indigenous Panamanian graduates who studied Environmental Health on how to construct composting latrines.
26 Business Brigades worked on helping rural Panamanians launch businesses in 2010 and Brigaders conducted 26 workshops to strengthen business operations. Business Brigades also provided $34,600 in direct contributions for equipment and materials to local businesses and provided over 5,500 hours of pro-bono business consulting!
Medical/Dental Brigades focused on 4 main communities in Comarca Ngobe Bugle: El Hacha, Cerro Algodon, Chami and San Felix. Surrounding communities also received services, resulting in a total of 8 communities served by Medical/Dental Brigades. Brigaders from UVA and UT Austin saw a total of 347 patients and Columbia University brigaders helped serve 322 patients!
Law Brigades had 83 volunteers provide free legal services to rural communities with Panamanian attorneys. More than 1,200 hours of licensed pro-bono legal consultation were given to community members and $8,400 were donated towards registration and filing fees for communities and small businesses. Brigaders also delivered 14 legal empowerment workshops.
