Do you want to go on a Humanitarian Healthcare mission?
Since my days as a teenager living in Southern California, I’ve been traveling to the border towns of Mexico to visit orphanages, play with kids, distribute food and clothing.
It was during these trips that I realized that I wanted to somehow be involved in healthcare. I wanted to have the knowledge to be able to soothe and support another person’s physical needs. I wanted to help those who didn’t have access to the kind of care that those of us in the developing nations have on every corner.
Over the years, I have had the honor to participate in two extended medical mission trips.
One in a small fishing village, San Quintin (not the prison — it is pronounced more like “canteen”) as a summer nursing intern between my 1st and 2nd year of nursing clinical.
And then nearly 30 years before I would venture on another trip to Zambia, on the African continent in 2015. Click here to see a few photos from that trip.
When I have shared my adventures online or in person, I often have nurses tell me that they want to go on a mission, they want to visit another country and share what they know with others; but it’s always something they say that they are dreaming of, something they will do later, something on their bucket list.
I did a quick search online and found dozens of organizations and if that doesn’t feel secure enough, then ask a friend, call a local church or email me!
Sharing is caring after all.
Have you been dreaming about going on a medical mission?
- What are some of the reasons you haven’t joined a group and gone a trip like this yet?
- What are your biggest fears about participating in these types of projects outside the US?