Farah Hussain
Community Engagement Reflective Essay
This summer turned out to be one of the most influential experiences of my life all due to one
trip I took in August. I am a member of UC’s Global Brigades chapter and we traveled to Nicaragua to
participate in a Public Health Brigade. We went to the community of El Limon in a rural area of the
country and partook in infrastructure projects that would improve the public health practices of the
people in the community. We also did an education workshop in local schools and houses to inform the
villagers about some safe health practices that they may have not previously known. This experience
was everything I expected and more in that it did involve plenty of manual labor, like I expected. When I
say that it was more, I mean that I was able to interact with the Nicaraguans more than I could have
imagined. It’s amazing how much I grew to know the Global Brigade (GB) staff and the locals with whom
I was working alongside. I was able to fulfill a learning outcome I mentioned in my proposal. From
working alongside the GB staff as well as local village members, I was able to learn more about the
community by having simple conversations and we were able to work effectively through collaboration.
Everyone had the same goal of improving the village of El Limon in the aspect of public health. This
experience did differ a bit from what I had initially proposed in my proposal. We were told that we were
going to join with another school and partake in a medical brigade as well, but some last minute plans
caused our brigade to be solely public health. This was a big deal for both UC and Global Brigades
because we were the first brigade group in Nicaragua to do a public health brigade! Previous schools
would do a hybrid brigade that was part medical and part public health. It was nice that we could
represent UC in that aspect.
To elaborate more on how we all worked together to create sustainable social change, there
was plenty of interaction between our brigade team and the locals. I was able to interact with a local
mason that was working with us. His name is Ariel and he only spoke Spanish, so it was interesting to
work with him and learn to complete the tasks necessary through use of nonverbal communication
sometimes. Donya Blanca, the mother of the family, showed me how she washed her family’s clothes on
a rock to learn how the people in the community wash their clothing. This way I was able to imagine
how much their laundry tasks would improve after we built them their washboard. Don Victor, the
father, was actually the one who showed us how to mix the cement, and he continued to show us
helpful techniques throughout the construction period. We would actually sit down and have lunch and
coffee with the other family, and through this it was easy to learn more about their day to day struggles.
Not to mention, the Nicaraguan coffee was simply amazing.
Another learning outcome that I was successfully able to accomplish during this trip was to
recognize public health practices and how it was influencing the community in a negative way. Our
brigade team was able to identify issues in the community and address these issues with the members.
We learned about probable solutions and implemented them through our construction projects and
taught disease prevention methods to the community as well. During the first day of our brigade, we
met two GB technicians, Alex and Jairo, who designed our infrastructure projects. They designed the
latrines and shower systems to fit each family’s specific needs. For example, Don Victor’s house was
located on the top of the mountain on an incline, so the design included a septic tank that would be
located further down the mountain to collect the runoff. The other family, Senora Trinidad’s family,
lived on relatively flat land. For Trinidad’s family the design for the bathroom had a filtering system and
tank built directly underneath the latrine, and it was designed to reduce odor as well. Alex and Jairo
showed us how all these mechanisms were going to work and they showed us old designs that failed to
work.
We also had an educational workshop portion of our brigade which also filled this particular
learning outcome. I walked to different family’s houses with one of the GB staff and two members from
my team to give presentations on personal hygiene. During this experience I was able to communicate
effectively in Spanish to the families about some health tips they should follow. The topic that Global
Brigades assigned our team was diarrhea and cholera. These diseases, or conditions, were quite
prominent around the area and it was important for the members of the community to be informed on
how to prevent or treat the issue. We gave group presentations on symptoms, causes, and methods of
prevention on these conditions. It was fun because I was able to speak a lot of Spanish during these
presentations and see that the families actually understood what I was saying. The GB staff member
who was with us would help to answer whatever questions the families would have. The families
learned about how a tiny change in their daily life, like washing hands with soap for example, can help
prevent some dangerous health hazards. We also taught them a home remedy recipe to make whenever
they do feel ill. This home recipe was very practical because it only needed a few natural ingredients and
substituted for medication that the families would not have access to. Then later in the week our whole
team went and gave these same presentations to a local school. I noticed how all the families and
children were very attentive and interested in what we had to say. They behaved very respectfully and
would react kindly when our Spanish wasn’t exactly ideal.
There were plenty of ways our public health brigade benefitted the Nicaraguans of El Limon,
however these benefits were most definitely mutual for me as well. Throughout all the construction
work and educational workshops I was able to observe and learn so much about this community. I
cannot stress enough on how wonderful it was to pick up and learn Spanish in Nicaragua. I was not at all
fluent or even comfortable speaking Spanish, but after interacting with everyone for a week I improved
tremendously in my Spanish speaking skills. It was fun to just witness myself improving like that. I was
also noticing, throughout the week I was there, how so many people in the world are not blessed with
the health care that most of the people are blessed with where I come from. Being an aspiring physician
with goals to improve the health of people everywhere, this was particularly touching for me. It is one
thing to know that there are others in the world that don’t have the health care I do, but it is definitely
another thing to witness it first person. I never really thought about wanting to go to third world
countries and performing volunteer health care clinics in my future, but going on this trip definitely got
me thinking about doing things like that in the future. I realized that I loved working with the Nicaraguan
people and there was this aura of genuineness that I loved. Going on this brigade allowed me to
confirm to myself that I in fact enjoy working to help other people, no matter where they are from in the
world. I also really enjoyed interacting with everyone firsthand which is something that I would need for
patient-doctor interactions in the future. A lot of what I did in Nicaragua does match up to what
someone in my aspired field would be doing. Although I didn’t really do anything medically related, I was
able to interact and help many people improve their health practices. Alex and Jairo, the two technicians
who were part of our GB staff, gave us a speech about how helping this village in El Limon is one step to
bettering all the villages in Nicaragua. Everything is done in baby steps and they explained how they
were so happy that we were the first public health brigade team to ever come to the country. They said
we have set the bar high for future groups to come and improve the public health of Nicaragua. This
goes along with the academic theory I mentioned in my proposal. It was about how improving the public
health in one place in not about just improving the public health of that particular place (El Limon), but
rather a baby step to obtaining global improvements in public health. I did notice all the public health
problems in the community we were in and what should be improved, but additional to that I noticed
many other things about Nicaraguans in general. They are very faithful and God fearing people and I
really appreciated this. They would mention their faith in almost every sentence they speak. Senora
Trinidad constantly talked about how grateful she is to live such a wonderful life with the family and the
community members and how she is blessed to have us come and build her family a bathroom. There
was a really strong sense of unity within this community that I loved. At the end of each day, our brigade
team would have a reflection hour where we would reflect upon the day. On the final reflection day, I
mentioned that in the beginning my goal was to observe and learn something important exhibited by
the Nicaraguan people that I can take back and apply to my own life. What I observed was the level of
happiness and faith exhibited by the people. I certainly lived in more luxury than they did, so I should be
able to live in their optimism and happiness daily as well. This is what I chose to take back with me to my
life in the US. Throughout these daily evening reflections we did while we were there, our team grew
really close to the GB staff. By the end of the week it was even a bit emotional, and the staff claimed
that we were their favorite brigade team ever. Hearing them say these things definitely made me really
happy that I had the chance to work with these people. However, it did make us all sad to leave.
I do plan on engaging in such a trip again in the near future. I am part of the executive board for
UC Global Brigades so I plan on staying involved with in the organization. What I would want to do
differently if I were to go on the brigade again is to include a medical brigade portion. Public health is
very important, arguably more important than a medical brigade, because it does focus on prevention.
Prevention is more sustainable than just treatment, which is what the medical brigade focuses on.
However I would like to get a taste of running medical clinics because that is more catered to my career
choice. I would obtain experience interacting with actual patients and partake in simple medical routines
such as taking vitals of a patient. This would allow me to learn more about the medical aspect of clinics
and see firsthand what the health status of most of the villagers was. I do like the public health brigade
because it ensures sustainable change when we left the country. We left two families with new
bathrooms, showers, and wash boards. These families did not have bathrooms before and would go to
the bathroom on the mountain which is very unsanitary. Now they can properly go to the bathroom and
wash themselves, plus they have a wash board to clean their clothing. As a bonus we all brought
toothpastes, toothbrushes, and soap to distribute to the children and members of the village. They
seemed to really appreciate this donation as well. It felt really good to go down to a country I’ve never
been to and learn their culture and customs, as well as partake in important service projects that
guaranteed community improvement. It was a nice change of scenery and opened my perspective on
the world. It is definitely different seeing poverty in third world countries firsthand. I know I learned a
lot personally about living gratefully, and being happy with what I have. I also grew professionally by
interacting with the GB staff speaking Spanish and English. I know now that I enjoy interacting with the
international world, and no matter where I am there is a special human connection that is easy to
establish with anyone.
Now UC Global Brigades is planning another brigade for this summer, however as I said earlier,
this one will be a medical and public health hybrid brigade. This will take place in Ghana. I do plan on
going on this trip and expanding my global knowledge and service. UC Global Brigades is focusing on
recruiting more members and expanding our chapter. I was able to disseminate my experience in a
Global Brigade informational session to a group of interested students. My focus was to share what the
brigade consisted of and how the experience can really help someone grow in many aspects of life. I also
plan on sharing a presentation to Alpha Epsilon Delta, UC’s premedical fraternity. These students may
be interested in participating in such brigades in their future. All these students have an interest in the
field of medicine of public health so it nice showing them this opportunity that is right here at UC. I hope
to assist in the growth of UC Global Brigades and participate in a few other brigades with new members
during my years here at the University.