Medical Missionary Trip with HHAB
On February 11th, 2016, three student pharmacists from UC San Diego, set about to Tijuana, Mexico along with a medical missionary organization, Healing Hearts Across Borders (HHAB). HHAB is one hundred percent volunteer ran organization, that returns to Tijuana every three months. The team normally consists of pharmacists, physicians, dentists, laboratory specialists, dentists, nurses, medical students, and pharmacy students. With the limited donations and supplies, yet with an outstanding team, this medical missionary organization strives “to bring healing for the body and hope for the heart to the poor in Tijuana, Mexico.” My first volunteer work with HHAB was during my undergraduate studies at UCSD, and when I began pharmacy school this past fall quarter, I was surprised that there wasn’t a student organization on the pharmacy campus that provided an opportunity for our students to volunteer in underserved Mexican communities. So I began working towards creating such opportunity through CSHP-UCSD as a P1 Liaison in the fall, and this was our ‘first of many to come’ trips to Mexico. So on Thursday Feb 11th evening, the volunteers from SSPPS, including Michael Yoon, Emma Huynh, and myself, met at Stein Parking Lot of UCSD campus. After brief meet and greet with other volunteers from Cal Poly SLO, USC, UCLA, and undergraduate UCSD, we loaded our medical supplies, medications, donations, and our personal belongings tightly in a van, and set off to Mexico. And within just an hour, we arrived in Tijuana and checked into our hotel.
Our team woke up bright and early next day, and set off to Colonia Grupo México, hilltop region on the outskirts of Tijuana. It was difficult to see how much poverty was prevalent in Tijuana on our drive down the previous night. But when we were able to see the community in bright day and just seeing the lines of patients who were waiting for us at the clinic site, it was clear that the population greatly suffers from poverty, malnutrition, and most importantly lack of health care. We quickly unloaded our supplies, set up our tables, organized the stations, and immediately began our work. Michael, Emma, and I dedicated our entire time to the pharmacy station and worked along side with Dr. Kin Lam and his students from USC. As a first year students, we learned a great deal just from organizing the medications into the appropriate categories by associated medical conditions. With multivitamins, we polished our counting skills by teaching the undergraduate students how to use the pill counting tray. As the prescriptions poured in, the pharmacy student volunteers checked and translated them into Spanish using a translation cheat sheet. Then we presented each prescription along with the patient’s profile to Dr. Lam. He worked through each prescription with us, and explained the potential drug interactions and adverse effects. When the volunteer translator was available, we were even able to practice counseling with the pharmacist. Within what seemed like few hours, we serve over 250 patients by end of the day. On the next day, Michael and Hien continued the volunteer work in Colonia Obrera, Tijuana and I volunteered at in Esperanza. Both location were literally at a dump site, where the level of poverty was even greater than what we witnessed the day before. But even then, we were able to create our make shift clinic, work with revisions from previous day, and collectively serve over another 200 patients.
As a whole, this trip was an unforgettable experience that met everything we looked expected: hands on pharmacy experience, patient interaction with the Spanish speaking population, humbling sense of satisfaction, and last but most definitely not least, delicious, mouthwatering street tacos. Thank you Dr. Panteha Kelly, Rachelle Roxas, and Jenny Han, for providing me with the guidance to start this medical missionary collaboration with HHAB at UCSD SSPPS. Thank you Dr. Dave Rose and Dr. Kin Lam for the warm welcome and allowing our UCSD pharmacy students to join your HHAB team. Thank you Michael Yoon and Hien Huynh for joining me and for all of your hard work during this trip. There will be many more volunteer opportunities in Mexico, and again, this was just our first of many trips to come!
