Costa a Costa Honduras 2017

INTRODUCTION TO COSTA A COSTA

Costa a Costa (Coast to Coast) Honduras began seven years ago as a way to raise awareness to the coalition group Transformemos Honduras (Let’s Transform Honduras) and the quality education reform work that they do. Founded in conjunction with several NGOs in the country, including the Association for a More Just Society (AJS), Transformemos Honduras (TH) is remarkably effective at rooting out corruption in the Honduran educational system,

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Country Coordinator Spotlight: Saúl Veladiz, Mexico

A couple months ago, we interviewed some of our country coordinators so we could share with you a little bit about their lives! All of our CCs are hardworking, passionate individuals who enjoy serving their communities and working with ISL volunteers, and they all have their own very unique stories. Here is what we learned in our interview with Saúl Veladiz, the country coordinator in Mexico!

 

Where is he from?

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Country Coordinator Spotlight: Princess Lawes, Jamaica

We recently interviewed some of our country coordinators so we could share with you a little bit about their lives! All of our CCs are hardworking, passionate individuals who enjoy serving their communities and working with ISL volunteers, and they all have their own very unique stories. Next up in our CC Spotlight series is what we learned in our interview with Princess Lawes, the country coordinator in Jamaica!

Where is she from?

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Country Coordinator Spotlight: Denise Neal, Belize

We recently interviewed some of our country coordinators so we could share with you a little bit about their lives! All of our CCs are hardworking, passionate individuals who enjoy serving their communities and working with ISL volunteers, and they all have their own very unique stories. We are going to start off our CC Spotlight series with Denise Neal, the country coordinator in Belize!

Where is she from?

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Tara Butler: Physical Therapy Internship in Costa Rica

Tara Butler is a student at Oklahoma State University, with her heart set on pediatric physical therapy. This past summer she served for four weeks at a home for orphaned children with disabilities in Costa Rica. Her internship with ISL sharpened her vocational direction, provided her with deep self-learning and was an enjoyable time of cross-cultural learning. We interviewed her to get some more details about her ISL Global Internship experience: 

What was the most meaningful part of your experience?

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Milan Sheth: Global Health in Nicaragua

After the experience of a lifetime, traveling with ISL and volunteering in Nicaragua, volunteer Milan Sheth has joined our team of Ambassadors to continue sharing ISL’s mission to serve those in need. We touched base with Milan recently to get some insight into what it is about Global Learning that inspires him:

How did you learn about International Service Learning?

Currently, I am a graduate student in Eastern Mennonite University’s (EMU) M.A.

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Lauren Kinser: Dental Internship in Belize

Lauren C. Kinser is currently pursuing her Master’s of Public Health, with an emphasis in dentistry, at A.T. Still University. She spent six weeks of her summer as ISL’s first intern with the Central Health District of Belize. She has been involved in volunteerism both locally and internationally. Her dedication to service has been recognized by the Bonner Scholars Program. She hopes to expand her life of service into a professional vocation as she moves forward in her field.

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Outstanding ISL Community Member: Frank Battaglia

McGill University student, Frank Battaglia, has been partnering with ISL to send global health volunteers to serve the health care needs of the Dominican community of El Mangular since 2013. This month we’re honoring him as our Outstanding ISL Community Member, and we’ve reached out to him about his experiences as an ambassador for ISL:

How many ISL teams have you organized/volunteered with?

Since July 2012, I’ve organized 4 teams personally,

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Beth Chatham: A Transcultural Nursing Trip

Rudy School Nursing Students Journeyed to Mexico Over the Holidays. Beth Chatham, assistant professor of nursing, gives her perspective on the students’ experiential learning trip:

Over Christmas break, seven nursing students from Cumberland traveled to Mexico for a service learning experience.  This trip was the practicum of their Transcultural Nursing course. Students had the opportunity to do home visits, perform public health surveys, and work with community nurses in providing diabetic,

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Why International Experience is Essential for Nurses

Why International Experience is Essential for Nurses

by TRACEY LONG –  26 January 2016

Learning about diverse people, cultures, belief systems, and world views is essential for nurses to be effective in a people-centered profession. After all, nursing is a delicate balance between the art and science of medicine. Nurses who understand more about people and their varying lifestyles can be more effective in helping people through illness toward wellness. Research proves that nursing students and nurses who travel internationally increase in self-confidence and cultural competence skills,

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Kelsey Kusch: Nicaragua & Costa Rica Reflection

Kelsey Kusch was a member of our Adrian College Global Health team this winter break and served in both Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Here is an entry from her day-to-day blog of her time with ISL.

Day 8 – Nicaragua

View of the city of Granada and volcano Mambacho

Today was the last day in Nicaragua and it sure was a memorable one. We did a canopy tour through a jungle in Granada,Read more »

Welcome to the Team Rebecca!

 

Today we formally welcome Rebecca Gähl to the ISL team! She becomes the 7th member of our Spokane office as ISL’s Outreach Director.

Rebecca began exploring the world from a very early age and has been working in the travel industry for over 10 years. From China to Argentina, she enjoys any and all types of travel but especially that which fills the human spirit.

She has traveled to over 50 countries and counting and to most of them,

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9 Lives and Going The Extra Mile

Our recent #CR073115MUEDU-G team had an unexpected visitor during their stay in Costa Rica. An extremely sick kitten was dropped at the convent used for volunteer housing and our empathetic volunteers took him in to care for as their own.

They bathed the kitten, fed him, and took him to the veterinarian only to discover he was suffering from a respiratory problem as well as a severe eye disease that was slowly killing him.

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Neethu Athimattathil: Mexico Reflections

Neethu Athimattahil was part of a Global Health team last December. We reached out to her to ask her about her experience, and she shared this story with us. 

In December of 2014, I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a service trip with ISL to Baja, Mexico. I was a nervous wreck leading up to my trip, not knowing a single soul on the trip or what to expect once I got there.

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Ministry of Health recognizes ISL’s Mexico Program with an award!

ISL has received an award of recognition from the Ministry of Health of the Mexican State of Sonora for enabling them to more than double the vaccinations and health screenings provided in underserved communities in the Puerto Penasco area.

At a luncheon held on May 15, 2015, ISL was presented with an award for making a considerable contribution to community wellness over the past year. Thanks to the assistance of ISL volunteers, the ministry of health was able to reach 55% of area children in 2015,

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Sus Ojos: Costa Rica

Sus Ojos is the official ISL Vlog. We have been sending cameras all around the world with our volunteers in order to capture the ISL experience thru their eyes (hence the name Sus Ojos). For our debut, we are sharing a remix of a volunteer’s entire trip to Costa Rica.

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ISL Costa Rica: Making memories

Our day began quite hectic and chaotic filled with flight changes and exhaustion. However, as soon as we landed, the day got exponentially better. We met our group leader, Abdi, and the other three members of our ISL team. After quickly grabbing a bite to eat and exchanging currency, we left the airport to our home for the week – La casa de la Espiritualidad in Alajuela (a city just west of San José).

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Emily Jones: What ISL Volunteers Take Home

Emily Jones, ISL’s Essay Contest Winner, shares how her experience in Costa Rica affected her patient approach at home in Alabama:

My ISL Experience

In my ambition to become a physical therapist, I chose to volunteer with ISL because I felt the unique experience would help me become a stronger candidate for physical therapy school. Although there is no doubt that my trip to Costa Rica has done that, it has also rekindled my passion for helping people in need,

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2013 Photo of the Year Contest Winner: Jessica Munoz

Jessica will receive $1,000 in travel credit to volunteer with ISL again in 2014!

This little girl, Doreen, greeted me with a warm smile every time I saw her. Her curious imagination inspires me to become a doctor who will one day travel back to Tanzania. I thank her for welcoming me but above all I thank her for showing me God’s presence. My ISL experience in Tanzania reminds me that “what we do for ourselves dies with us.

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Purdue University Hike for Humanity Update

Hello again from Team Purdue plus Cristina!

We are all home, safe and sound, and we would like to share our experiences from the second half of the trip, the Hike for Humanity portion. Our group, joined by Andrés Villalobos (ISL Team Leader) and Dr. Jack, Lisa Ann, Cathy, and Mary Beth (the new volunteer members), left for Talamanca bright and early on January 5, and travelled for most of the day to our base camp.

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Purdue University Rings in the New Year in Costa Rica

Hello from Team Purdue (plus Cristina)!! We just brought in the New Year in the best way possible and we thought we should reflect on the amazing trip we’ve had so far.

We arrived at the airport at about 1 in the morning, but that did not put a damper on our enthusiasm and Abdi, our team leader, was still as excited as ever. We immediately went to the hotel to rest for our first day of orientation.

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Hike for Humanity: A Day on the Hike

Hike for Humanity is a very special ISL program which provides health services to communities of indigenous populations. H4H is an exciting and rewarding experience because we bring health services into communities which, due to difficult geographical access, have been denied those services in the past.

Our adventure begins in San Jose, the capital city of Costa Rica, where we pack all of our luggage, medicines, and medical supplies onto a bus and drive to the Caribbean province of Limon on the Telire river.

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Jennifer Wootton: Costa Rica Reflection

During the summer of 2013 I had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica and work with a wonderful team of individuals whose mission was and still is to grow and learn through helping those who are less fortunate. Little did I know that I was the one who would be transformed by the whole experience.  As we visited the people of La Carpio and Fraijanes, we were able to provide medical care and treatment for many and in doing so,

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