With winter break approaching, many students are ready to relax at home or on vacation. However, for 33 Marquette students and medical professionals, the break will be spent administering medical care in Honduras.
Through a Milwaukee-based, non-profit organization started in March 2003 called Global Medical Relief, Inc., the trip participants are a part of the organization's Students Administering Medical Relief Abroad medical brigades in which undergraduate premedical students team up with local medical professionals to bring medicine and supplies to many in need, according to trip participant Heather Johnson, a senior in the College of Health Sciences and member of the Physician Assistant Program.
Since patients receive free medical care, the participants have been busy seeking monetary support.
On Dec. 9, the travelers are inviting Marquette students and faculty to help support the trip by dining at the Eagle's Café, 1633 W. Wells Ave., from 4 to 9 p.m. The restaurant will donate 15 percent of all profits generated during that time toward the medical trip. In addition, trip participants encourage customers to bring donations for the trip.
"Students can bring vitamins, bandages, personal hygiene products and also school supplies," Johnson said.
Vicky Vasudeva, owner of Eagle's Café and a 1999 alumna, said she is happy to play a part in the trip.
"I was so impressed with how much time these students are volunteering," Vasudeva said. "They're so young and setting a good example."
Vasudeva has helped various Marquette groups, including Habitat for Humanity and Bayanihan Student Organization in the past through this kind of fundraising. She said not only can customers get a chance to try the restaurant but can also discuss the trip with participants.
"It's a great time for students to find out what GMR does and to support us," Johnson said. "We will be there the whole time to answer questions and also to collect donations."
Johnson, along with other students majoring in nursing and physical therapy and students planning to attend medical school will join with doctors, pharmacists and nurses in caring and treating patients who greatly need medical attention.
"A lot of the people we'll treat have never seen a doctor before," Johnson said.
Shital Chauhan, a fifth-year physical therapy student and SAMRA coordinator will also be attending the trip.
"GMR's purpose as a non-profit organization is to provide medical relief to underdeveloped countries," Chauhan said. "We treat patients and create charts, so in the future we'll have medical records."
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Dec. 2 2004.