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Abstract

This article highlights two students’ experience on Timmy Global Health’s medical brigade to Quito, Ecuador. Timmy is a nonprofit, Indiana-based organization dedicated to advocacy, service, and fundraising on a domestic and global scale. Every year, Timmy sends a group of sixteen students and medical professionals to Quito, Ecuador, over Purdue’s spring break to treat people in underserved communities who otherwise would not have access to quality health care. On this medical brigade, Timmy students travel to a different location each day for a week, set up clinic, and diagnose, treating nearly 100 patients a day. Those with conditions too complex to treat with the basic medications brought to the communities are referred to the Padre Carollo hospital in Quito, funded by Tierra Nueva, Timmy’s partner organization in Ecuador. Through this trip, the authors were exposed to a very unique health care experience. The brigade was an opportunity to witness how the team’s hard-earned donations directly aided the patients. Although they could have directly donated the two thousand dollars required to go on the brigade, the trip educated them in not only treating the immediate conditions in patients, but also in understanding the cultural, public health, and governmental roles in the reasons health disparities exist in Quito today. The trip inspired them to return to campus and work harder to collect donations and fundraise, as well as to advocate for global health and engagement in other ways college students can help.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284316527

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