Hola! “Gracias” Global Health Trip (GGHTx) brings student volunteers and professionals to underprivileged communities in Latin American countries such as Guatemala, Mexico, and Costa Rica to educate others about the importance of healthcare while providing the students unparalleled medical exposure through shadowing local physicians and assisting in clinics. The trip is an incredible experience students find personally rewarding, while also providing the opportunity for an applicant to stand out with unique foreign healthcare experience with underserved populations.
Dr. Arash Hakhamian is the co-founder and director of GGHTx as one of the only volunteer group exclusively for young professionals formed to allow young volunteers to travel around the world. Doctor Arash explains ” These incredible volunteer missions change both the lives of the participants and the patients they serve by allowing the young participants to experience various aspects of health care and medicine while providing a much needed service to the poorest individuals from 3rd world countries in Latin America.”
This is a great opportunity for students travel to amazing countries, learn new languages and learn about different cultures. The young volunteers who are also thinking about going to medical or dental school can gain tremendous benefits of real life exposure to medical/dental specialties while enhancing their resume and setting them apart in their application process to professional schools.
While there are hundreds of NGO and other professional volunteer groups that currently go to help in these improvished countries, there is a legitimate need for assistants who can help these doctors and professionals in providing the care in their respective fields. The student volunteers can not only learn from their exposure working alongside many accomplished doctors but can also gain valuable networking opportunities that may serve them throughout their professional growth.
“This group differs from all other volunteer groups because we also have incorporated a tourism aspect to the missions dedicating several hours of extracurricular activies daily designed to allow the volunteers to experience the amazing food, culture, music and art of each country we visit,” explains Dr. Arash. By creating allowing the volunteers to experince the many touristic accomodations of each country we increase the possibility of these volunteers returning to the country in the future which therefore results in economical stimulation of the local businesses and a trickle down effect that compliments the medical help we provide.
Services Provided by the groups include but are not limited to the following”
1) Providing Life Saving Medication
2) Optometry and providing glasses
3) Dentistry
4) Pediatrics
5) Education on brushing, infection control and hygiene
6) Preventative Services
7) Screenings and referrals for surgical procedures
8) Grants for local hospitals/free clinics
If you are interested in volunteering and are between the ages 18 and 28 years of age or would like to recommend someone to come participate in our life changing mission trip please email or contact us for more information and an application.
Donations: Donations are much needed and appreciated and will go 100% towards expenses such as buying medication, equipment, housing and logistics. Please email contact us for more information for tax purposes.