Ten years after our first General Surgery Mission Trip, our 12th team returns to Cochabamba to expand training in highly complex cancer surgeries and minimally-invasive general surgery cases.
Read MoreIn some countries in Latin America, each day in the month of January is carefully scrutinized to predict the weather for the rest of the year. The practice of using the first days of the year to plan life-giving agricultural activities is known as the cabanuelas. Our first mission trip this year was filled with a broad array of organizational and medical activities. If the cabanuelas hold true for the work of Solidarity Bridge, the year 2017 promises to be a year of teaching, healing, equipping and deepening our spiritual practice and celebration.
Read MoreIn 2016, US missioner Dr. Joseph Wu, an electrophysiologist from UCLA Medical Center, traveled to Santa Cruz to work alongside our Bolivian partners at San Juan de Dios Hospital. The trip helped to integrate St. Jude Medical, a new corporate donor, into our Pacemaker Program. Dr. Wu accompanied staff on home visits with patients and their families. Here are a few of their stories.
Read MoreOur Benezet Intern, Gustavo, share his reflection at the end of the General Surgery Mission Trip. "Though this was my fifth mission with Solidarity Bridge, this week has been my first experience accompanying a general surgery team. Experiencing the operating room and the pace at which things function inside that room is quite a privilege."
Read MoreOur General Surgery Mission Trip has already completed seven surgeries in their first two days. Join us as we check in with them in Santa Cruz and learn more about the patients they will be serving this week.
Read MoreAs our Multi-Specialty Mission Trip ends, we reflect on our experiences and strive to turn our calling into a strong foundation.
Read MoreAs an organization rich in faith, we refer to those who travel with us as missioners. Today in our blog, we share a few reflections from our team in the midst of their mission experience.
Read MoreIn the clinic at Punata, adult cardiologist, Dr. Mark Ottolin, and pediatrician, Dr. Monica Joseph, worked together to assess a young boy with a congenital heart defect.
Read MoreOur multi-specialty mission team is working at the municipal hospital of Punata this week. Punata is a small city encircled by the Andes mountains, but thanks to the publicity efforts of the Puente de Solidaridad staff, patients from all over the region are travelling to our location to take advantage of our missioner’s expertise.
Read MoreToday marks the start of back-to-back mission trips for Solidarity Bridge. Our multi-specialty mission team has just arrived in Punata, Bolivia, and next week, a general surgery mission team will be working in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
Read MoreLearn about the fruits of our most recent neurosurgery mission trip, which included a two-day course on Pediatric Neurosurgery. It is our hope that Solidarity Bridge’s Program for the Development of Neurosurgery continues to turn the earth like a plow, opening furrows for the enhancement of neurosurgery, and a commitment among all in medicine to use these advanced skills to serve those in great need.
Read MoreOn mission in Santa Cruz, Solidarity Bridge and our local partner, Puente de Solidaridad, will offer a training in pediatric neurosurgery. By training neurosurgeons in this complex area, more Bolivian children with cancer or tumors will have hope for a better chance in life.
Read More“The course was excellent and demonstrated the importance of training opportunities in Bolivia. Many questions I had were clarified by the extremely capable faculty who led this course.”
Read MoreThe purpose of the mission is to provide training to Bolivian neurosurgeons and ENT surgeons in endoscopic skull base surgery. The course has attracted surgeons from all around Bolivia, and will include lectures and the commented operative simulcast of five surgeries. Of the five patients whose surgeries will be central to the course, four are working women in the prime of their lives who are losing their vision -- and their livelihoods -- to pituitary tumors.
Read More“My mother deserves to have good health,” one of her daughters commented. A son added, “She has suffered a lot over the years, but she is strong and independent. She knew the mission was the answer --- and she moved ahead.”
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