Student Initiatives in Latin America
Collaborative Sahsa Health Initiative
The primary purpose of the Collaborative Sahsa Health Initiative (CSHI) is to improve the health conditions of the Sahsa region of Nicaragua through a sustainable partnership between the UNC School of Medicine, the University of Nicaragua, Léon (UNAN) and the communities of Sahsa.
Contact: Andrew Chen
Global Brigades
UNC Global Medical Brigades was founded in Fall 2007 by a small group of undergraduates. They successfully completed two brigades, acquired $700,000 of medications and supplies, and treated approximately 3000 patients in Honduras. In Spring 2009, GMB was reorganized as UNC Global Brigades, which consists of medical, public health, and water brigades. With these three concurrent projects, approximately 100 students visit Honduras twice a year to install water sanitation systems and concrete floors, clean burning ovens, and improve the quality of life in Honduras, one family, one village at a time. UNC Global Brigades is part of the national Global Brigades, LLC which is the largest student led humanitarian relief effort in the world.
Contact: Nisel Desai
Honduran Health Alliance
This program aims to serve rural communities around El Corpus, Choluteca, Honduras through teaching men and women about women’s health issues and performing physical exams for women. By working with local Honduran organizations such as Comunidades Unidas and Clínica ASHONPLAFA, HHA hopes to maintain a sustainable, ongoing relationship between UNC School of Medicine and communities around El Corpus.
Contact: hha@listserv.med.unc.edu
Proyecto Puentes de Salud – “Project Health Bridges”
The founding goal of Proyecto Puentes de Salud (PPS) is to ameliorate health care inequalities by serving as a “health bridge” between underserved Latino communities−both in North Carolina and in Mexico−and needed health services. Our method for building this bridge is twofold: first, to provide quality medical attention to underserved and disadvantaged communities in Guanajuato, Mexico, and second, to conduct meaningful research that will inform effective intervention programs in the future.
Contact: Neeti Doshi
Students Helping Honduras
Students Helping Honduras (SHH) is an organization dedicated to assisting the men, women, and children of Honduras to bring them out of poverty and to allow them to enjoy more fulfilling lives.
Contact: Madeline Kirch
UNC Dental Project Mexico
Since 1987, dental students from the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry have participated in a unique educational and service opportunity as part of the UNC Dental Mexico Project. This project combines an intensive seminar on health services in a developing country with a dental volunteer service project at a very large, rural Mexican orphanage. Students directly experience various components of the Mexican health care delivery system and have clinical rotations in three dental programs associated with hospitals or maternal-child treatment centers. The information and exposures have been useful in understanding how health systems work and how developing nations cope with scarce medical and dental resources.
Contact: Dr. John Tiffee
