Summer 2016

The summer of 2016 has been a busy time for Health Bridges International (HBI). In June a group of volunteers, including parishioners from Christ Episcopal Church, took part in HBI's annual Team Perú trip. The trip brought together volunteers from around the U.S. and included two weeks of health outreach in impoverished public schools and community activities in Arequipa in collaboration with Father Alex Busuttil.

July saw HBI provide a number of trainings and present at a World Health Organization (WHO) conference in Glasgow, Scotland. Staff from HBI helped to train municipal employees in the City of Arequipa on basic first aid and community safety. HBI partners from Linfield University School of Nursing presented data from a collaborative research study on cross-cultural service learning for nursing students.

In addition, in collaboration with expert trainers from Yale University School of Medicine - HBI facilitated an international course on Emergency Point of Care Ultrasound. A rare hands-on continuing medical education conference for 30 emergency room physicians at Clínica Delgado in Lima.

Also in July, HBI worked with an intern from the University of Michigan to conduct a research study on agencies and organizations in the City of Lima serving street youth  The study, the first of its kind in Lima, included the development of an online portal for organizations to collaborate and learn more about partnering with other youth serving groups in Lima. HBI will be publishing the results of the study in an academic journal in late 2016.

Finally, in August HBI is continuing work on developing a "Center of Excellence" for serving marginalized and high risk youth in collaboration with a Peruvian Government run home for abandon children in Arequipa. The project, a five year historic agreement between HBI and the Peruvian Government, is designed to create a model program for working with highly marginalized youth. HBI is spearheading the project in collaboration with a number of subject matter experts and in-country partners.

​To learn more about the work of HBI - including ways you can get involved - follow us on Twitter @HealthBridges or Facebook @HBInt.org. As always, check-out our website at: www.HBInt.org