Daniel Hiley - Global Brigades Volunteer, Honduras
During his placement, Daniel had a range of roles including working on the dentist and pharmacy stations, inputting patient data into online databases, helping at the triage station, taking patients’ blood pressure, height and weight measurements, shadowing local doctors, delivering information to children about health and hygiene and helping with manual labour and construction tasks for an eco stove and hygiene station.
I thoroughly enjoyed the close interaction with the local people and getting to know and understand their lifestyle.
‘It was really great to get to know the community and by talking to the community health volunteers, I learnt a lot about how the community functioned despite its limited resources. The public health brigade was extremely challenging both physically and mentally, which is why I believe I enjoyed it so much.’
‘The main skill that I believed I developed whilst on the brigade was my communication skills. Whilst on the brigade I intentionally put myself in situations where my communication skills would be challenged. For instance during the triage section of the brigade I wanted to speak to patients on my own without the help of my colleague or translator. This meant I had to solely rely on my abilities without the help from anyone else. I felt like I developed in confidence and ability the more patients I saw. It was extremely rewarding when a consultation went extremely fluently and that the patient understood me without the need for extra clarification.’
‘I enjoyed getting stuck into the building projects and working with the local masons. I felt that I naturally became a leader during the construction project as I quickly learnt the technique of how to mix the cement. This was our biggest task throughout the three days and had to be carried out on many occasions. I believe I successfully led our team to complete this task in an efficient manner.’
‘I believe that the fact we managed to provide excellent medical care to two local Honduran communities seeing 1215 patients over 4 days is astonishing! I feel like the whole brigade was a huge success.’