Remedy UChicago Wins National Award
“You have been selected out of more than 600 REMEDY programs nationwide to receive this inaugural honor due to the excellence of your program, the strength of your membership and your continued dedication to helping those in the developing world by recovering medical supplies in your community…We are so proud of what you have accomplished and we use your shining example everyday as we recruit new REMEDY programs throughout the country.”
—Tammy L. Young, Executive Director, REMEDY, Inc. (in an e-mail letter to REMEDY UChicago)
Tips for Working with NGOs Abroad
Sahil Mehta, MS 2 REMEDY UChicago Member
Be patient—NGOs in third world countries often don’t have internet, the staff, or the sense of urgency to respond to your emails/phone calls right away.
Plan ahead—Know what you’re going to do when you get down there.
Be flexible—Once you know what you’re going to be doing, don’t expect to be able to do it! Things simply don’t work out a lot of the time. Simple tasks that take seconds here can take weeks in a developing country.
Get to know the people you are helping—Don’t just sit in an office all day writing grants. Get out and meet the people you are there to help. This is easily the most rewarding and enjoyable thing that you can do.
Take time to explore the surroundings—Getting to know the local culture and area while infusing money into the local economy will make your work much more rewarding and enjoyable.
It’s ok to think that the trip is for you, too—While you are there to help others, the trip will be even more meaningful if you take time for yourself and enjoy the experience.
Expect failures—You aren’t going to solve all the world’s problems in a few weeks. You’ll be lucky if you even get one thing fully accomplished that you set out to do.
Keep up the work back home— Raise money for the NGO, raise awareness, do anything that keeps you connected and involved.
For most medical students, the desire to make a difference in other people ‘s lives served as a major motivator for entering the medical profession. Soon after starting first year, however, students realize it will be a year or so before they interact with real patients and still a few more before they can actually help them! When this reality sets in, it is easy to lose focus on the purpose of medical school—to become great physicians, helping those around us live healthier lives.
Fortunately, there are many ways medical students can serve others. From free clinics to mentoring to international volunteering, many are able to take part in activities that remind them of why they decided to attend medical school. REMEDY—Recovered Medical Supplies for the Developing World—is a student organization that works to alleviate international health care disparities and fulfills this need for many first-year students at Pritzker. Last June, members of the Class of 2010, three undergrads, and Pritzker alumna Dr. Minal Giri traveled to the Dominican Republic on the 2007 REMEDY trip. Our group raised more than $35,000, collected two tons of medicines and medical supplies, and distributed these supplies to the people of the Dominican Republic.
Buoyed by the success of the 2006 REMEDY trip to the Dominican Republic, our group set out to make REMEDY UChicago ‘s impact bigger than ever. We partnered with several non-governmental agencies (NGOs) that serve the people of the Dominican Republic. Physicians for Peace/Fundacion Sol Naciente, a medical education organization dedicated to building friendships in developing nations, worked with REMEDY to set up a two-week community health clinic in Moca. Dr. Giri and a group of REMEDY students saw more than one hundred sick children with bacterial infections, scabies, worms, and even a case of scleroderma. The entire clinic operated with medicines donated by REMEDY and was staffed by REMEDY members.
Other group members worked with the Health Justice Collaborative in Batey 1, outside Barahona. In Batey 1, students were able to work with the members of the community, largely a Haitian immigrant population, participating in health related activities as well as general community building.
REMEDY UChicago members with local staff at the Fundacion Sol Naciente Clinic in Moca
REMEDY UChicago members with the women and children of Batey 1
REMEDY UChicago also worked with Misiones Pax, a volunteer organization that runs medical mission trips in Latin America. Students visited La Vega and Monte Plata and helped run health clinics with the help of local doctors and Dr. Marisela Jaquez from the University of Miami. By visiting several urban hospitals in Santo Domingo, students gained a sense of the disparities that exist within the health care system of the Dominican Republic.
This year, REMEDY UChicago was awarded the first Outstanding REMEDY Program Award from REMEDY National for service in medicine. The group was picked out of more than 600 chapters—a testament to the hard work of all University of Chicago REMEDY groups since 1999, dating back to its chapter founder, Dr. Giri. The award will be presented in April at the inaugural REMEDY Global Impact Awards ceremony.
More information can be found at www.remedyuchicago.org
