While Solidarity Bridge provides resources, training, and expertise, we have learned that sustainable impact only takes root when local leaders take ownership and carry the work forward. For new initiatives, we search for these key “local champions” that have vision, commitment, and perseverance. That is why we have been so energized by our partners in pediatric epilepsy surgery. The MOSCH team provides nearly 6,500 neurology consultations per year, of which up to 49% are patients with epilepsy. According to statistics in Latin America, 30% of these will be drug-resistant, and of these, 15% are possible candidates for epilepsy surgery.

Sometimes, success is not defined by a successful surgical outcome but by having the courage to make difficult decisions that protect patients’ lives. As this year’s Neurotrauma Mission Trip began, Simon was waiting with his mother outside the neurosurgery clinic for his chance to be seen by the Solidarity Bridge NNI team for his pre-op screening evaluation. They hoped the surgical team could relieve the unrelenting pain Simon suffered from Trigeminal Neuralgia.

June brought two historic firsts to neurosurgery in Paraguay—both made possible through the collaboration of Solidarity Bridge and our dedicated partner doctors in the U.S. and Paraguay. For the first time in the country, surgeons successfully performed a cerebral double bypass and a flexible endoscopic intraventricular surgery.

“I was hopeless” is a phrase you frequently encounter when speaking with parents of children with drug-resistant epilepsy. It serves as a powerful reminder of the vital role that Solidarity Bridge plays in sustaining hope for those whose hope has run thin. Along with committed partners, Solidarity Bridge is restoring hope for Bolivian children suffering drug resistant epileptic seizure disorders by making epilepsy surgery accessible. 

At 53, Margarita is a woman who has faced more challenges than most people do in a lifetime. When I first met her, she was overwhelmed by debilitating headaches and near blindness. About 18 months earlier, her symptoms had started with headaches and subtle vision problems. But at the time, she and her family thought it was all tied to the devastating loss of her husband of more than 30 years. The grief of losing him had consumed her, and no one could have imagined that something else might be wrong.

Bolivian representatives from the Santa Barbara Hospital spent a week in Honduras to observe a range of rehabilitation training and care methods for neuro trauma patients at Teleton Honduras. This South-South exchange facilitated the sharing of expertise and collaboration to solve healthcare challenges.

In a groundbreaking collaboration with Solidarity Bridge this fall, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Neurological Surgery will welcome the first Bolivian neurosurgeons as part of a one-month observership program.

Surgery Residents during previous on-site training course held in March of 2024, focusing on spinal surgery.

A Bolivian nursing student needed highly-specialized brain surgery unavailable in the public healthcare system in his country. Read about his international journey to care and healing.

“Successful surgical training is not dependent on the equipment, the finances, or even the planning as much as on the dedication of the people and their motivations for being here.”

From virtual lectures to hands-on practice, our two day Spinal Surgery Workshop gave more than 25 neurosurgical residents from Bolivia and Paraguay an opportunity to advance their skills.

Solidarity Bridge partner Dr. Bianca Becerra, a Bolivian neuro-anesthesiologist committed to improving access to trauma care, named Global Health Fellow at the annual conference of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA).