Community knows no borders, love needs no translation.

I wonder how my life would be different if I was born somewhere else?
If I lived in a remote community in Nicaragua or even here in Canada.
If I stopped going to school so I could work for my family.
If I didn’t grow up where saving for education was a feasible concept.
If I couldn’t access even the limited healthcare available.
If layers of socioeconomic restraints held my community in a cycle of poverty.
Would I have the same love, joy, generosity, and resolve as the people of El Hular?
Because despite anything they may not have, those they had abundantly!
It was so inspiring to see their passionate work to grow in their community.

Sometimes all we need is for others to have a bit of faith in our vision, to support us as we work towards our goals. The communities that partner with Global Brigades are no different, nor are the many who still stand alone – not just in Nicaragua but even here at home. I’m forever grateful to the people of El Hular and Las Cureñas for welcoming us into the pursuit of their vision; it was a privilege to work alongside them towards their goals!

Global Brigades works alongside their community partners towards mutual empowerment and the resolution of healthcare and economic disparities through combining prevention, education, and treatment initiatives. It has again been so deeply inspiring to build relationships working alongside the members of and friends in the El Hular and Las Curenas communities in rural Nicaragua. Their motivation and dedication to improving the health of their communities has taught me more than I could hope to reciprocate. To bring healthcare to their remote communities they put in an incredible amount of work to mobilize community volunteers, partner with supports, and continue to work towards preventative and treatment-based solutions. A privilege to join in their efforts.

Here and at home, coming together for the health of our community is so vital. We all can have a role; sometimes it takes patience, usually it takes practice, and always it takes learning. We have as much to learn from and with our communities & neighbours in Canada, and I hope we can learn with them how to show up grounded in community, commit ourselves in partnership, collaborate in a participatory process, ask how we can help, listen and reflect intentionally, and walk forward together.