volunteerforever/volunteer_profile/anastassia-reznik I am fundraising to volunteer for VIDA in Nicaragua this March to fulfill my life-long dream of working in global health and medicine. VIDA volunteer will bring a group of volunteers including me to serve low-resource populations in rural Nicaragua. As a volunteer, I would work with patients, practice medical Spanish, use the skills I learned in EMT training, and learn about cross cultural medicine. VIDA will dedicate my participation fee to provide medical services and supplies, including the costs of medicine and setting up a medical clinic in a rural setting, to our patient population in Nicaragua. To donate funds, please follow the first link at the top of this post! My experiences teaching and working as a camp counselor with children from all over the world in Switzerland made me realize that I want to become a doctor. I was responsible for campers with unique physical and emotional needs coming from diverse backgrounds. I wanted to use my abilities to help people medically after watching emergent situations involving my campers. You can watch a video showing where I took my campers on their first hike at the following URL: https://youtube/watch?v=HC3saqRVuaM I appear in the last minute of the video sitting in the back of an all-terrain vehicle with one of my campers and a golden retriever named Beau. Some of the children and teenagers I worked with had never hiked before. Some had never seen snow or ice where they grew up. I want to continue to work in cross cultural medicine as a physician. When I heard about VIDA service-learning medical trips to developing countries in Central America, I realized this would be a perfect opportunity to increase my cultural competence and to help people living in rural villages receive basic health services. VIDA was created in 2008 with an initial cohort of 101 volunteers. In 2013, there were 1212 volunteers. VIDA volunteers set up mobile field clinics in community centers, churches, schools, farms, ranches or animal rescue centers with the help of members of the local community. Basic health services are offered to all patients who attend free of charge. You can read some quick facts about the organization here: vidavolunteer.org/quick-facts I am looking forward to the challenge and excitement of working in a mobile clinic with fellow students from my post-baccalaureate program, volunteer physicians and local interpreters. As a post-baccalaureate pre-medical student, I started a blog for our student association using my background in expository writing at New York University. Please enjoy reading the beautiful essay that one of the VIDA volunteers, a post-baccalaureate pre-medical student like me, wrote about her experience in Guatemala for us: https://georgetownpbpmsa.wordpress/2014/06/20/diagnosis-διά-dia-apart-διαγιγνώσκειν-gignoskein-to-learn/ - See more at: volunteerforever/blogs_post/vida-volunteer-trip-to-guatemala#sthash.fi0q0Uxu.dpuf Best wishes for the coming year.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 02:55:14 +0000
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