Global Medical Brigades is an “international movement of students and medical professionals” that works to provide healthcare systems to underserved communities worldwide. Global Brigades has medical, water, engineering, business, public health and legal empowerment branches. Each of those branches has chapters across the world, including one at Brandeis University.
The Hoot spoke with Eva Okunieff ’26, the secretary of Brandeis’ chapter of Global Medical Brigades. She talked about past healthcare campaigns that the chapter has successfully completed as well as providing more information about the club itself.
Okunieff mentioned that the club often travels to “underserved regions of Honduras,” where members of the group have the opportunity to “shadow physicians, optometrists, [and] pharmacists.” She added that these professionals “set up clinics in these rural communities for about three to four days,” while the Global Brigades chapter members listen to the physicians, aid with English translation, help with pharmacy transport and more. Okunieff noted that, although “we don’t directly treat patients … it’s more [of] a learning experience for us”
For many of these communities, Okunieff said, “Care … is quite limited. For instance, in a lot of these communities it may take a whole day to travel to the nearest hospital via bus. [A journey to the hospital can involve] traveling a couple miles to a bus and then a long bus ride to a central city where there is a hospital available for treatment. Even with that, the access to hospitals is quite limited based on [the patient’s] financial state.”
Okunieff added that in the past, the chapter has aided at clinics in El Suyate, Chandala and Las Champas, where the group worked alongside health professionals and local volunteers. Okunieff also told The Hoot that “every health professional, volunteer, and student plays a crucial role in how the clinic operates day to day. The clinic runs until every patient who visits the clinic is seen and their questions and concerns are addressed, including the community member volunteers. The health professionals truly show how empathy persists in healthcare, something that is not commonly seen in the US.” She noted that her past two years attending Brigades trips have been “extremely eye-opening, especially to the disparities within healthcare globally.”
When club members take part in a clinic, they work in five main stations: “[triage], consultation, pharmacy, dental and charla,” but Okunieff added that there an optometry station may also be set up depending on professional availability. At the triage station, students gather basic medical information about community members before sending them to consultation, where students have the opportunity to “listen to physicians as they assess their needs.” Here, the physicians also ensure that the students understand “why they will prescribe a certain regimen or medication” to the patient, ensuring that this is a learning process for the student volunteers. Similar processes occur at the dental station and the pharmacy station. Then, at the charla (chat, in Spanish) station, students “give interactive education lectures about oral hygiene to young children. We usually sing songs about brushing our teeth and various other activities or games. I think this aspect of the clinic allows individual connections to be made.” Okunieff recounted that, during her first time attending a group trip, she “met a young girl named Valeria, although my Spanish was not strong we were still able to bond and connect. She would hold my hand when we were playing games and when she was leaving asked if we could take a picture on her mother’s phone. This interaction I will never forget from the brigade.”
She added that “during the Brigade, the physicians/healthcare professionals from Honduras guide us in learning more about the medical and healthcare system in Honduras, while we students also gain hands-on experience. The program works towards building sustainable health systems in rural areas.”
Okunieff also told The Hoot that while the Brandeis chapter of Global Medical Brigades is open to all students, the club is “looking for individuals who really want to engage in a meaningful way with communities [and] gain shadowing experience.” She noted that their members are “really open to helping others and … new experiences. [We’re all] genuine people not really doing it for [a] resumé [or] doing it for med school applications.
In closing, Okunieff added that the club’s first event is on Sunday, Sept 8, at 5:00 PM in room 315 of the Shapiro Campus Center, when they’ll host an information session about their upcoming trip in February. They’ll also talk about another volunteer opportunity, where members can volunteer at the Newton Wellesley Hospital. She also told The Hoot that the group is currently “accepting applications for the Brigade until Sept 10th and interviews will be held following.”
Editor’s note: Sports editor Calli Morvay ’26 did not participate in the writing or editing of this article.
