Hello all!

My name is Diana Brown and I am pleased to announce that I will be traveling to Honduras with Emory University to participate in the Public Health Brigade from May 12-18th, 2015. Public Health Brigades at Emory is a chapter of Global Brigades, the world's largest student-led global health and sustainable development organization. The Emory chapter systematically works with more than 300 other university groups around the world to deliver and implement one of nine skill-based programs that benefit more than 130,000 Honduran and Panamanian community members annually. The brigade begins with an introduction to the challenges that face community members, such as basic sanitation and respiratory diseases . The following days volunteers travel to one of Global Brigades' partner communities to implement health education, meet with community leaders, conduct survey research, and work alongside the community as an international team to construct four health projects, including latrines, water storage pilas, concrete floors, and eco-stoves.

Why Honduras?
The average level of education for those living in rural Honduras is approximately 5th grade, with 70% of citizens not having access to public sanitation services and families having less than 3 gallons of water per day to use. In addition, approximately 80% of children are in one of the three stages of malnutrition. Access to health care creates healthier, more productive lives, and has a long lasting impact on the members of a chosen Honduran community.

What is a Public Health Brigade?
Public Health's mission is to empower rural Honduran communities to prevent common illnesses through in-home infrastructural development, community leader training, and health education. Working side-by-side with community members, volunteers improve the overall infrastructure within the home through the construction of five projects: eco-stoves, latrines, water storage units, showers, and concrete floors. The five projects were chosen based on observations of medical brigade patient records, which illustrated high levels of respiratory, chagas, and other preventable diseases caused by poor in-home health infrastructure, as well as student input and observations.

Why do I need your help?
In order to participate in this incredible opportunity, I must fundraise a total of 1,580 USD to pay for brigade-related expenses such as food and housing for volunteers and staff, required immunizations, transportation to the communities, airfare, and brigade specific expenses. Public Health's brigade specific expenses include staffing masons and building supplies. I am reaching out to you all for donations in the hopes that I can raise enough money to positively impact the lives of our chosen Honduran community.
Below I have included a link to a video with further information and a closer look at the Public Health Global Brigades. If you would like to support my trip, a "Donate Now" button can be clicked to the right of this page and different donation options can be accessed. Thank you all in advance for your support, and if you are not in a position to donate at this time, thank you for taking a moment out of your day to learn about this journey I will soon be embarking upon.

Best Regards,
Diana Lee Brown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj56NSxkTHw (Public Health Brigades Video)