During the first week of
October, which is about the middle of the semester, our class went on a
Nicaragua trip. Here we did a multitude of activities, but the one I will touch
upon is the call to action and prevention program in La Quinta neighborhood. La
Quinta is an urban neighborhood in Managua, which is the capital of Nicaragua,
where we helped youth groups named “brigadistas” take action in their
communities to prevent the infection and spread of Zika, Chikungunya, and
Dengue. When we arrived, it was a neighborhood that was full of exuberant people
that made the area seem alive, and even with this glow it was a puzzling sight
because the neighborhood presented much poverty. Houses had metal roofs and unfinished
separations, but even with the lack of certain infrastructure in their homes
the people of the community united to try to make a change. Getting off the bus
and receiving such a warm and loving welcome from the brigadistas was how we
started our day. After getting acquainted, we played a version of human knot to
get comfortable with each other and to start thinking about teamwork, then we
got right to business. They handed us bags filled with debris and water to show
us their main concern: mosquito larvae. Female mosquitoes use any deposit of
water available to plant their eggs, so that they can flourish into fully
functioning vectors for the three epidemic diseases. Because of this the
brigadistas found that the best action that can impact and educate the
community the best was visiting each home individually and checking these
deposits of water for mosquito larvae. The main deposit of water that was of
concern in this community were barrels. Therefore, the brigadistas also gave
community members covers for each uncovered barrel after the inspection. I went
into the field with an 18-year-old girl that was from a neighboring community.
She showed me the skills of how to use the simple but effective net and bowl to
catch their targets. This prevention program, led by young leaders, was
astounding. I had never seen such commitment, leadership, and compassion from
any group of individuals before. Seeing the drive they had to make their
neighborhood better was not only moving but frightening. Frightening, in the
sense that the culture in the US tries to implement this call to action but it
is too individualistic to truly follow through; but La Quinta, with such little
resources, is making a change to better their communities. This concern makes
me become critical of my lifestyle choices and how to try to live ethically and
empathetically. My family comes from backgrounds like the community of La
Quinta in Dominican Republic, and this drives me to work with people in
impoverished communities. In hopes to try to implement and spread this in my future
career of medicine with the communities I will work alongside with, I will try
to understand my own privilege and try to practice critical analysis of it in
order to be the best version of myself for them.
This photo was taken by our beloved bus driver,
Marvin Vargas. It shows the group of brigadistas, the community organizer (Harold
Suazo) and our Tropical Diseases group. The photo was taken after our morning
in the community helping the brigadistas check homes for larvae.
