Sustainability & Empowerment with Student Volunteer Trips

At Global Medical Brigades, we are committed to sustainable, community-led development. Which means, our model must include volunteers, communities, and staff to succeed. Because of this, we often encounter questions about the impact of student volunteer trips. Can it make a difference? We absolutely know it does!

For us, empowerment, transparency, and collaboration are more than just words on our website. We weave our values into program methodology and data-driven decisions to make a lasting, measurable difference.

In this blog, we’ll focus on questions to specific topics we’ve addressed over the years with our student volunteers and community partners. We know that to increase access to healthcare, establish sustainable water and public health infrastructure, and execute economic development, a collaborative approach to growth is crucial to our success in achieving this audacious goal. And it’s why we are answering these thoughtful questions with earnestness. 

The Work of Global Brigades

Question 1: Why short-term student volunteer trips? 

Global Medical Brigades began 20 years ago with one week and one group of volunteers. Our first trip laid the foundation for more schools to start their Brigades on their campuses, and that would provide resources to hire our first part-time local employees in Honduras. Within a few years, we grew to hundreds of schools, thousands of annual student volunteers, and hundreds of staff from the countries we worked in to build sustainable development initiatives year-round. “One weeklong student volunteer trip” are the spokes in a wheel that create year-round sustainable impact. 

Ongoing partnerships provide scalable impact that leads to sustainable communities! 

We run week-long volunteer trips to make it accessible for our students to participate.  At GMB we want to affect as many hearts and minds as possible—helping students understand the complexity of their volunteer work. Which results in our ability to mobilize more students abroad than even the Peace Corps in some years. We provide thousands of volunteers annually with cross-cultural experiences they might not have otherwise encountered—let alone opportunities to make a meaningful impact.

Question 2: Are these student volunteer trips considered voluntourism?

Volunteers on Brigades participate in thoughtfully constructed agendas that directly contribute to GMBs and the communities we partner with long-term goals. Each Brigade serves as a critical step in the larger vision for a community’s health and economic development goals and our overall vision to improve livelihoods for generations to come. 

A Brigade is so much more than voluntourism. It’s a hands-on opportunity to gain experience in sustainable development and make a tangible impact within our partner communities.

The majority of time spent on a Brigade is focused on the work itself. Volunteers may have the opportunity to visit key sites in host countries, however, our focus is on cultural immersion that exposes our volunteers to the country’s customs, history, and traditions. 

Global Medical Brigades, Since Inception, Has

• Established or trained 277 Community Banks.
• Disbursed over 31,850 loans.
• Invested $10.9M in community-owned banks and businesses.
• Constructed 80 water systems
• Provided 60K+ people with access to clean water.

Question 3: How are Brigades different from a “Mission Trip?”

Global Brigades, while purely secular, recognizes that our volunteers come from different religious, political, and socio-economic backgrounds. It is not uncommon for volunteers to be on a Brigade that encompasses a spectrum of religious and/or political views. What makes our Brigades special is the collaborative work achieved by this diverse group of people. As you can see, there is something beautiful in that! And at the highest level, it is what our world needs to preserve and perpetuate peace as we work together to execute sustainable development. 

Final Thoughts

At Global Medical Brigades, we are committed to transparency in everything we do, ensuring lasting sustainability for the communities we partner with, so they have the power to thrive. This is our mission, and we need you to be part of this invaluable work, helping to build stronger, healthier, and more economically independent generations still to come.

Ready to go on a student volunteer trip with us? Viewour list of open Medical Brigades and sign-up!