Global Brigades

At 52 years old, this was my first mission trip- a medical brigade- and it was overall amazing! The care and attention to detail that Global Brigades tended to before and during our arrival was 10/10! The group leader, translators, driver (of our bus), medical professionals (dds, dr x2, pharmacist, emt) were outstanding individuals! I am impressed by Global Brigades and am looking to plan my next mission trip after being home only 4 days! YES, it will be with Global Brigades. Thank you for your work!

global brigades is great! They do valuable, impactful work throughout central america, greece, and ghana

I went to Guatemala May of 2024 and the doctors and employees were professional and kind. All of our fundraising went towards helping the people receive supplies that they needed. It was a great and fulfilling experience.

I have been working with Global Brigades since 2014. In those ten years, we have had more than 200 students and travel to Central America, Africa, and Greece with the organization. We could not find a better partner with which to do international service work. Global Brigades has excellent security and safety protocols; superior lodging, food, and transportation, and the organization's commitment to sustainability with host communities is second to none. Any organization wanting to conduct international service work will definitely want to consider Global Brigades.

I love how global brigades promotes sustainable solutions instead of offering a “band-aid” fix to underserved communities. I have volunteered with GB for a few years now and love the supportive community that this creates when people join together to make a sustainable impact.

This organization is a scam. They promote a thorough agenda but when you get to your destination, you do not participate in a thorough agenda. I went on a trip with this group in April 2023 to Greece, 90% of the time was spent in the hotel. The hotels that are used are common for student trips. Meaning a lot of misconduct and drinking.

I’ve had the pleasure of going on two brigades with GB, and have been able to gain student leadership experience. The opportunity to be able to be involved with this organization has been life changing. I’ve learned so much from volunteering with GB, and I know that I will implement what I’ve learned in my future career. The team is very supportive of all of their volunteers and student leaders; I hope to work with them for years to come!

The absolute best place to volunteer ALONGSIDE communities!!!

I joined a Medical Brigade to Honduras in May 2023 as an executive member of the University of Alberta chapter. The impact we were able to make in the lives of those we met during our stay in our host country was a truly moving experience, and additionally I know the difference we made will far outlast our Brigade duration through Global Brigades' sustainable and holistic model of providing aid to their partnered communities. Also, after returning from Honduras, I was inspired to start up a Dental Brigade from scratch at my campus!

I've had the opportunity to go on three different medical brigades with GB to Honduras, Ghana, and Guatemala, and they were absolutely amazing in every way! These experiences have taught me so much about healthcare access in rural communities, global health, and such unique cultures. The GB staff is unparalleled in their kindness, generosity, and attention to detail; they really go above and beyond to make sure each student has the best time in their host country.

I went on an Engineering Brigade this past May and it was one of the most impactful experiences I had in my life. The Global Brigades team was very supportive in this time and made this experience very comfortable.

I have been with Global Brigades for 3 years as a student from Vanderbilt and only have amazing things to say about the organization. I have met fantastic people on all my trips - other students, the doctors, and the staff. They work very hard to make our trip seamless and are very detail-oriented with all the logistics. I love that they can do their job very well and still be such fun and exciting people to work with! I hope to continue working with Global Brigades continuously throughout my career!

I have volunteered with Global Brigades in Honduras and they are a highly professional organization that truly makes an impact on their partner communities! I felt that I was in a valued role throughout my brigade and had a great time meeting new people and learning new things.

Worked with them for years, such an amazing Organization

I had the opportunity to volunteer with Global Medical Brigades in Tegucigalpa, Honduras this past summer. On this trip I was able to gain a lot of medical experience while helping underserved communities in Honduras. I would recommend this organization to anyone looking to go into the medical field.

I joined Global Brigades my freshman year of college at West Virginia University. unfortunately, the Brigade was cancelled do to the COVID-19 pandemic. University precautions and the evolving pandemic continued to prevent the opportunity to safely brigade my sophomore and junior years of college. Now, entering my final year before medical school, I am eager to travel with fellow WVU students to Panama as we help facilitate medical and dental clinics while working to improve public health in Panama!

Global Brigades is an exceptional organization, and I am proud to represent the University of Michigan's chapter this year as its student campus chairperson. Although I have yet to attend an in-person brigade, the values that this organization promotes are honorable and have taught me what service is supposed to look like. Global Brigades not only focuses on providing quality brigades each year, but they also seek to empower rural communities to promote education and sustainable practices year-round. Global Brigades truly changes lives, and they deserve to be recognized at the international level with the highest honor in hopes that their mission can be spread even further around the world.

In 2019 I was able to travel to Panama with Medical Brigades at Florida State University. This trip was a humbling and life changing experience that not only allowed me to grow as an individual, but allowed me to grow alongside others as a team. Since then, I became much more involved in our organization and held the positions of Treasurer and Vice President of that club in the past. I am now the President of Medical Brigades at FSU, as well as the Campus Chairperson for Global Brigades at FSU. Working closely with this organization has opened doors to many opportunists for my future, as well as given me a place to volunteer my time to educate and help those in need. The mission of this organization provides lasting impacts, and I am very grateful to be a part of that. #MyGBstory

The expansive community work that GB does in Central American and across the world is second to none. They continue to provide sustainability in communities that have lacked it for generations. GB is moving the world forward and leaving no one behind.

My global brigades journey started at our first meeting. The building of trust, breaking down expectations and creating proper education towards empowering communities. This education I was able to put into my journey with my brigade, but filtered through into my personal life, community life and education. I switched paths after my first brigade into nursing. My second brigade, I brought my mom and sister... my mom and I gave CPR on the flight to Tegucigalpa to a complete stranger. We brought her back. I’m now a Registered Nurse, and I think back to my experiences in Honduras all the time. The people are so friendly and hardworking. I try to live an enlightened path daily because of these experiences.

My experience in GMB has been life changing! I thought I wanted to be a nurse but after seeing the effect of public health first hand I changed my career goals!! I could say so many amazing things about GMB but the work of empower 365 is the best!

Great organization, great purpose, and great people.

I loved working with my fellow classmates in organizing and participating in a Medical Brigade in Panama! From this experience, I was not only able to see my donations in action, but I was able to help set up clinics and provide healthcare services to the communities alongside volunteer medical professionals.
I loved embracing and learning about the culture of the communities and being able to help sustain their healthcare systems.

Global Brigades has opened my eyes to a life I never would've seen without being in this organization. I have been to two different countries and had amazing experiences. I have met many incredible people that I am so grateful to get to know while on brigade and on campus.

My first brigade was during the civil unrest in Nicaragua. The brigade was cut short in order to keep us safe, and my experience was life changing. The people we worked with lived a life much different than what we do in America, yet they appeared to be so much more happy than many of us in the states. The community members were so welcoming as if we were all family to them. They welcomed us into their homes and into their arms. Seeing how they lived and treated really caused me to do immense self-reflection.

My second brigade was in Panama, and it was so much fun. We partnered with two other universities, so we had the opportunity to meet about 30+ people. On top of volunteering and helping some amazing people, we were able to try out local restaurants and hike up a mountain. Because our flight home was late enough, we were even able to enjoy an afternoon in Panama City.

Global Brigades provides fantastic opportunities that turn into life changing experiences.

Global Brigades is an amazing organization that I've had the privilege of being involved in for the last couple of years. When I went to Honduras on a Medical Brigade last year it was such an amazing experience for me to see the wonderful holistic work that GB does in front of my own eyes and get involved with it! I've always been interested in international service, and I'm really encouraged by the work GB does to involve local communities where they work and really provide ethical service measures

I have been able to attend 2 different brigades and each experience has been wonderful! I love that the goal of the organization is for long term sustainability for the communities that we help. While some groups provide temporary relief, Global Brigades helps to provide long term change that helps these communities is so many different ways. I worked in a medical clinic in Honduras and got to meet some of the most amazing people. In one community, we met a gentleman named Jorge. He was so gracious of our help and made sure all of the volunteers felt welcome and comfortable in his community. As we left, he gave each of us a hug - telling us we are always welcome in his community. The experiences I had on brigade were some of the most rewarding and important experiences I have had in my young adult years.

Global Brigades has been the most impactful part of my college career. Through this incredible organization I have been able to give back to communities around the world and be part of something larger than myself. Global Brigades has opened my eyes to the value of financial literacy and ensuring all the aid we provide is sustainable. I have become a better person because of my involvement with Global Brigades and I am forever grateful for this organization.

I joined Global Medical Brigades in the hopes of gaining medical experience while helping people in a rural community in Central America. As I got to know more about the organization, I am absolutely in love with what Global Brigades stands for and its mission. I went on a brigade and it was life-changing for me, so much that I am going for the second time. I am also on the executive board for our chapter at our university. I want to keep continuing my involvement until graduation, but also find a way to remain involved when I become a medical professional as well.

I joined a chapter of Global Brigades at my university my freshman year, and remained involved with various brigades chapters and positions in the organization. So far I have had the opportunity to go on two brigades with the organization, both of which have been absolutely incredible. On my time on a leadership institute in Honduras, I was able to see Global Brigades' commitment to planned obsolescence, working with and not for the community, avoiding voluntourism, and maintaining good relationships with the community to ensure that projects are maintained. I was also able to see the real impact in communities that GB visits by observing communities at various stages in the holistic model. Volunteering with Global Brigades has been an incredible experience, and I highly recommend that others get involved with a chapter near them.

I first joined GB as a sophomore, and now that I enter my senior year as president and campus chairperson of my chapter I realize how insurmountably important it has become in my life. Not only has this organization given me the opportunity to experience medicine in the developing world, it has opened my eyes to the delicate intertwinement of culture and health through meaningful face-to-face interactions with individuals I met while on the brigade in Panama. Not only this, but GB's sustainable and holistic model offers long lasting change by thoughtfully empowering communities, a refreshing contrast to the "fix-it" model followed by most charities. I highly recommend GB to anyone that is looking to be a part of a lasting impact on developing communities abroad!

I volunteered with GB to gain insight into the kind of progress being made in the developing world, and was delighted to see the spirit and commitment of all the staff members, which visibly penetrated the volunteers. The unique holistic model shows you how well-thought out the programmes are, and it's great to feel part of the movement. I was humbled by what I saw in Panama; it will stay with me for a long time and I hope to see exciting changes within the society on my university campus so that more volunteers can share the same experience.

As a post-secondary education student studying human rights and international relations, I wanted to get involved with an organization that made a real impact in the world and see how an international non-government organization worked. My education has made me critical of NGOs and the potential harm rather than good they can do. I was pleasantly surprised to learn how GB worked through the holistic model to achieve sustainable development and empower communities. I was even more impressed when I learned how GB approached critiques of their organization- they welcome critiques and for their volunteers to think critically of their role and of the organization as a whole. GB takes into consideration any and all critiques to inform their work moving forward. The more I learned about GB, the more I have come to love it. My brigade experience with GB is something words cannot accurately express. I seen first-hand how GB works in partnership with communities to achieve the community's goals. I witnessed first-hand the stories of community members who shared with us how much GB has helped their communities and families. One of my favourite parts about GB is how they incorporate the SDGs into their work as well. Women are encouraged to become part of Committees overseeing the projects, such as the Water Committee. Women are empowered to become leaders in their communities, and the involvement of women in these projects is critical to ensure sustainability. Women in these communities are often the most impacted by the lack of access to water. This is just one example of how GB is making such positive changes in the communities they partner with. This is the type of organization I always wanted to become involved with. #MyGBStory

My experience with Global Brigades has been extremely transformative. Each year when I go back I am reminded of the love and passion that I am surrounded by not only within the student group but within the staff team as well. GB is special because each and every person I encounter has a deep rooted passion for service and a dedication to helping others. Seeing such selfless attitudes has made me aware of how people feed off of the love of the communities and others around them. This is the very reason why medical clinics are so efficiently run and hygiene projects are so effectively built. People look past small differences to understand the bigger picture and consequently, how they can relate so closely to the people around them from different cultures and backgrounds.

After my first brigade, I saw what I was learning in engineering come into practice and realized that GB really has put in a lot of effort to balance student and community empowerment. Seeing the energy that communities and staff bring to brigades led me to maintain my involvement with GB and so I keep coming back for brigades!

Global Brigades is an incredibly well run organization. With Sustainability, Empowerment and a Holistic Approach at the forefront the focus is always on the community partners. It is consistently an inspiring organization to be a part of. My experience as a volunteer was always so positive, the staff were incredibly knowledgeable and kind and interaction with community members so inspiring. My favourite part about Global Brigades is the commitment to empower students and communities, engage with and educate Global Citizens and promote a society of ethical volunteers.

I am going on my second year being involved with GB and I have loved every second of it! Last year I was able to go on a Medical Brigade with my university to Panama and it was incredible being a part of the sustainable work this organization does. Being in-country allowed me to see the progress GB has made and how strong of a relationship they have with their partner communities. The entire staff, from program coordinators to translators, were always approachable and friendly during the trip making it that much better. One of my favorite parts was being able to learn about the culture of the communities we visited.

Since my first brigade, I have become the Campus Chairperson (a role created by GB) at my school in order to spread the word of the work they are doing. Being in this position has allowed me to see how much work goes on behind the scenes every single day to ensure their partner communities can become empowered one day. I look forward to participating in many more brigades in the coming years!

#GB365

I have been involved with Global Brigades for the past 4 and a half years as a medical brigader, program director, president, and campus chairperson and it is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I have traveled to Panama, Honduras, and Nicaragua with Global Brigades.
Global Brigades changed the trajectory of both my education and life and enlightened within myself new passions of which I was previously unaware. I am now a medical student with the goal of becoming a bilingual provider and eliminating barriers to care. I plan to continue working with Global Brigades throughout the course of my life and cannot imagine not doing so.
The staff are some of the most genuine, kind, and knowledgeable people of which I have ever had the privilege to interact. The people in the communities with which GB partners are incredibly driven, hard-working, and optimistic.

I was an international student from Monterrey, Mexico at DePaul University who joined a Medical Brigade to Nicaragua and a Public Health Brigade to Honduras.

My GB experience got me more involved with Sustainable development in my own country. I have learned that without an effective tax system, Mexico will not even remotely meet the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

This means that Mexico needs to experience a very profound cultural change to help the 9.5 million people that still live in extreme poverty. On average, Mexican corporations avoid 15 billion dollars in taxes a year by sending the money to tax havens abroad. The government, if not corrupted could use this for sustainable development.

Stopping the tax condonations would put a break to the nations economic growth, and a risky alternative to fill this holes in the economy is foreign investment. Making strategic alliances with Mexican private sector entities and their foundations could boost the progress into both, the empowered 100 goal of GB and the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN, but most importantly we will start seeing the systematic change that Latin America needs.

I am in close contact with Public Health Directors in the state of Nuevo Leon which are willing to cooperate with Global Brigades to send brigades to communities in need. It is just a matter of being on the same page with Global Brigades executives.

Global Brigades volunteers could benefit from brigading in Mexico by learning about one of the most complex and unequal societies in the world from native Mexicans. This could stimulate the creation of future leaders and social entrepreneurs.

Additionally, immigrants from Nicaragua and Honduras are being sent back from the American boarder into Mexico everyday, and now is when our society could benefit the most from legal clinic to empower these immigrants and help their families and their future. Mexico became a third safe country for immigrants, which means many immigrants will be searching for a better life here in Mexico in the following decades.

To conclude, I will always be grateful for my GB experience and I will keep striving to bring the organization to communities in Mexico.

Global Brigades is unlike any other organization out there, offering opportunities for young volunteers to get involved to "change the world," while simultaneously supporting thoughtful, grassroots, holistic development in Latin America. What a unique organization to be able to meld these 2 different areas of international development into one seamless blueprint for sustainable development. I would recommend Global Brigades to anyone looking to get involved in international development work.

What better way to learn and give back to communities in need in Honduras, Panama, Ghana, and Nicaragua than to have the opportunity to take the knowledge you have learned in school and apply it to the real world?
I have been on a total of five brigades and, as cliche as this may sound, my world has turned upside down. Having been on five out of the ten initiatives offered within Global Brigades, I was able to see the effect of how the brigades offered lead to sustainable communities and sustainable student leadership all across the United States. As a student who is deeply interested in making a tangible impact and being able to see the end result of a project that is being worked on is what makes this organization a road map to living a life of powerful, meaningful, and inspirational work. The joyful and loving communities that welcome us are a pleasure to work in. The faculty and staff in these countries as well as on the board of directors here in the United States are always looking for ways to make our experiences as empowering and fulfilling as possible. I am looking forward to continuing my leadership as a volunteer within Global Brigades.

I am a campus chairperson, so I lead my university's chapter of Global Brigades. In other words, I have devoted most, if not all, of my college career to this organization and its success on my campus. I could not have chosen a better organization to work with. I have been on one brigade, an environmental brigade in Panama, and it was a life-changing experience. Working with rural communities, gaining teaching experience, learning about life in lesser developed countries, gaining experience in sustainable development, practicing my Spanish skills, and working to make the world a better place are just a few of the wonderful benefits of GB, and those are just for the volunteers! The point of GB is to empower communities to lead their own development. In this way, the objective is not to come into communities and do everything for them. It is honestly a group effort. Some of my favorite experiences with GB in Panama were working with the Embera people to plant rosewood trees. These trees not only assist in reforestation, but they also help keep their traditions alive. Seeing the people so incredibly happy that you are there and being so incredibly happy to be there, seeing the hard work from both sides, and learning about each other: these are the essentials of Global Brigades. It's all about learning from and helping each other. I am so excited to say that I am going on another brigade this May. I cannot wait!

Amazing organization with dedicated staff, inspiring volunteers, and welcoming communities. A development organization with a true partnership mentality and openness to change in order to improve and grow.

I have been a part of GB for 3 years and my experience on Brigades and working with GB staff and advising has been outstanding. The brigades opened my eyes to new communities and experiences. Global Brigades' holistic and sustainable model is extremely effective and this is an organization I am proud to be a part of.

I have been involved with Global Brigades for the past four years as a student at Saint Louis University. Global Brigades was the one club that I found on the SLU website before starting my first semester that I was very interested in. I became active in the organization during my first semester, and it did not disappoint. I went from not knowing whether I would be accepted to the first brigade that I applied for to now being a very active participant of the SLU GB executive board. My experiences with Global Brigades have definitely been some of the most impactful of my college career. These experiences have taught me that even when I believed that I had no skills or any use to offer that I could still be impactful. They taught me to always be open and learning. The time on my brigade in Ghana led me to create my own program with my University so that I could study abroad in Ghana. I have learned that I have friends and neighbors everywhere including Ghana, Honduras, Panama, and Nicaragua, that even if I have no other use that I have my energy to use, and I took away many skills from the program that I did not have before. I highly recommend this organization to anyone who is searching for an opportunity to make an impact in communities in Ghana, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama as well as anyone who is looking to learn skills and ideas to bring back to their own lives.

I first started volunteering with Global Brigades in spring 2012. Originally I was attracted to the idea of boosting my application for medical school, however, during my first brigade, a medical brigade to Honduras with the University of Oklahoma, I began to notice how many cases of the same diseases we were encountering. During reflection one evening I brought this up, and was thoroughly educated about the Holistic Model for sustainable development Global Brigades uses.
Since then, I've been a firm believer in, and advocate for, the work Global Brigades is doing.
Global Brigades works to empower under-resourced communities, but the students who volunteer their time with Global Brigades, such as myself, return from their time in-country empowered as well. From having an eye opening experience and learning about new cultures, gaining skills and knowledge about a future professional field, or learning about international and sustainable development work by engaging with a community to help them positively improve their lives, Global Brigades helps make a positive change in the world.

I was first introduced to Global Brigades as a freshman at Brandeis University. I entered college looking for an outlet to get involved in international development, public health, and learn about health disparities abroad. Global Brigades was an amazing outlet to do so. I have continued to be involved with Global Brigades since then, becoming more involved with the organization each year. I am now the Campus Chairperson for Brandeis University, representing three brigades on my campus.

Through my Campus Chairperson role, I have learned so much about the inner workings of the organization beyond being a volunteer. Global Brigades is dedicated to sustainable development and holistically improving a community for a sustainable transition out of a community. I have seen first hand the impact Global Brigades has on empowering rural communities through participating in both medical and public health brigades in Honduras. Global Brigades also fosters relationships and connections for a lifetime between the community members and the volunteers. We learn from each other, and impact the lives of each other far greater than expected. Global Brigades is a remarkable organization that is committed to improving the health and economic livelihood of individuals living in underserved communities. However, Global Brigades is also inspiring, influencing, and encouraging a generation of students dedicated to international development. I have had the opportunity to see Global Brigades grow not only on my own campus, but on campuses around the country. Global Brigades provides students with the opportunities, leadership abilities, and inspiration to make a difference in their college careers and for the rest of their lives.

Global Brigades has developed an impressive model for community empowerment. This means establishing health and economic committees so that locals have the capacity to manage their own development. They have also geared themselves to ensure all projects are sustainable and have a long term plan for impact. A great and innovative organization for international development!

I was introduced to Global Brigades immediately after entry into university. The university chapter of Global Brigades seemed the perfect combination between gaining hands-on clinical experience (a valuable tool for premed students like myself) and travel (something I always enjoyed since I was young). What started out as a one-week trip to Honduras evolved into a long-term relationship with the organization. Surrounded by peers interested in working to solve the greater, global issues plaguing humanity, my perspective of the world and my place within it changed.

I've participated in six volunteer service trips through Global Brigades already, not just with the medical program, but in several of the development projects well. I've shadowed physicians, build rainwater harvesters, helped with foundation work for a new community health center, shadowed legal professionals, and built sanitary units with latrines and showers. I hope to continue my involvement in the organization in the future as a medical professional. Not only has Global Brigades served as a means to get experience in the clinical setting abroad, the staff and volunteers within the organization have served as a constant source of mentorship and guidance for my evolving career goals.