My Nonprofit Reviews

I am a current medical student who joined this incredible group on the mission to Peru in July 2013. This one step in my schooling has changed my passion in medicine forever. In this "promise to Peru" not only did the team help with cataract surgeries, but we also followed the next week with a traveling medical clinic. We took a bus filled with the supplies we brought from the US to the tops of the hills in the beautiful Sacred Valley of Urubamba. When we got to the top, we met with the village healer who called the locals to come to the spot for a wellness check. We treated many UTIs, GERD from H. pylori, and chronic back pain from misusing back muscles during agricultural work. In addition to providing medications, we also educated our patients with counseling on UTI prevention, clean water consumption, diet modification based on the local cultural foods, and lifting PT techniques to avoid low back pain. That year we had the privilege to start a "women's health" component to the traveling medical clinic. With our new handy dandy portable U/S we were able to do wellness checks on our pregnant mothers. In addition we were diagnosing many patients with symptomatic gall stones, and referring these patients to the proper areas in the city-- Cusco for treatment in the next following days. For us it was important to have continuity of care to avoid "medical tourism." Volunteering in Urubamba was truly rewarding because we were targeting groups that really didn't have any access to medical care in the hidden Sacred Valley region. This experience has kindled my interest in global health and allowed me to continue my passion for medicine beyond the lines of the US. Lastly, the entire group works as a team so if you are looking to do some volunteer service, learn some medicine not in the US, work in a fun group, and visit a new place in South America, you have come across the right program. Please take a look at the stories on the website for more information on past missions. If you cannot travel with the team, you can still help the team in the US by gathering the supplies we need for these missions. Contact the mission director via the website for more information.

More Feedback

This was my first Blanca's House mission and it was fantastic. As a medical student, I got to work one on one with the attending physicians on several different aspects of patient care. There were times I saw a patient from screening all the way to PACU and then to post-op and discharge. Words cannot describe how proud I am of the team that served in Guayaquil this past month. We worked endless hours in that one week but every happy patient we saw the next morning during rounds made up for all the leg pain/coffee intake/lack of 8 hours of sleep. The one thing that sets Blanca's House apart from other missions is that there is CONTINUITY. The mission group receives emails from the coordinators with news on how our patients do after follow-up care is provided. This aspect of this group is important to me as it avoids medical tourism. If all that already didn't get you interested, the best part about this mission is the team camaraderie and being able to meet a group of like-minded individuals who believe in the cause. I appreciated that there was always a group that waited for the last of the team to join the bus back after a long day. The "MMF bond" was real. If you are interested in global health and like working in groups and meeting new people who share your interests, join Blanca's House on their next mission. Trust me, they'll put you to work and you will love every bit of it!