Pharmacists without borders: students travel to Honduras
This summer, four pharmacy students returned from a Global Brigades trek to Honduras with a new perspective on their practice.
Kaetan Waghmare (Class of 2015), Ashley Rideout (Class of 2015), Kara O’Keefe (Class of 2016) and Janice Coleman (Class of 2015) wanted to get involved with the organization because it allowed them to provide free medical care to people who otherwise would not have had access to any medications or medical professionals.
The students were involved with two separate projects – a medical/dental brigade to the community of La Cuesta, where several stations were set up for patients to visit, and a Public Health Brigade, where they helped families build a hygiene station with a latrine, shower, and water storage facility.
For Mr. Waghmare, the experience was educational, as they encountered many illnesses that do not exist in Canada, and also witnessed that certain illnesses were treated differently.
But not only that – the experience was also profoundly humbling.
“What was the most eye-opening for me was seeing how much the people we helped appreciated everything we did for them,” says Mr. Waghmare. “They viewed us as a blessing. The facilities we built for the families would be viewed as rudimentary in our society, but for them it was life changing.”
Some of their patients walked shoeless for three hours, and then waited for up to six hours in 40-degree weather, just to be seen by a doctor and receive medications.
“Not one person complained about the journey,” he said. “It was very eye-opening to see the lengths the Honduran people would go to just to come see us and get the simplest medical care that we take for granted every day. If we have a sickness, we can go to the hospital any day and see a medical professional free of charge, and most of us will still complain about waiting for two to three hours.”
He feels that the constant reminder that his education is a privilege will always keep him grounded in his pharmacy career.
“What we have here in health care is almost unfathomable to many other people in the world. We need to recognize that.”
The team is currently accepting resumes for students who wish to travel with them to Honduras next summer. Interested parties can contact Kaetan Waghmare at kpw325@mun.ca