UNC Charlotte’s chapter of Global Medical Brigades is bringing medical and business help to some of the world’s neediest communities.
In May 2019, members of the chapter will travel to Panama to deliver medical supplies, assist in medical care and offer financial support to businesses there.
Global Medical Brigades is an international organization of students and medical professionals who help implement sustainable health systems in communities with limited or no access to health care. UNC Charlotte has both a medical brigade chapter and a business brigade chapter, which teaches financial literacy to business owners in under-resourced communities.
The University’s chapter is trying to raise $5,000 to send medical brigade students to Panama for seven days in May through a crowdfunding campaign. The money will pay for travel, lodging and medical supplies. Students will get to work alongside doctors to provide care to residents, said Autumn Little, a UNC Charlotte junior who is president of Global Medical Brigades.
Little, a pre-kinesiology major and public health minor, has been a member of Global Medical Brigades since she was a freshman. That year, she traveled to Nicaragua with the group where she helped a dentist build a tooth for a patient. Last year in Honduras, she and other students worked alongside a gynecologist.
Little said it is helpful for a lot of the residents living in the communities to see the students there and know that they care about them.
“The impact that we make is massive,” she said. “But it’s also a bigger impact on us as students. It’s eye-opening.”
Little said both the medical and business brigades raise money during the academic year to donate to the communities in which they will be working. The business and medical brigades will raise $1,500 each, she said.
Global Medical Brigades is one of several fall crowdfunding campaigns being conducted by campus groups. Learn more at Crowdfund UNC Charlotte.