Working with limited time and resources to deliver health care to a population with great need, it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers, but our “patients aren’t just numbers.”

Our multi-specialty mission team has arrived at their new hospital site in Mizque, and is looking forward to an exciting week of work ahead.

On our first-ever Oncological Surgery Mission Trip, cancer patients and their families offered lessons in hope and trust, even when the outcomes they longed for were not guaranteed.

The thread of “pushing the envelope” was consistent throughout our week-long neurosurgery mission that consisted of mentored surgeries, patient consultations, meetings with hospital leaders and course instruction in both Bolivia and Paraguay.

On her first mission trip with Solidarity Bridge, office Intern, Megan Sheridan, is serving as the supply coordinator for our Oncological Surgery Mission Trip in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. In this blog, she reflects on the experience, the reasons we are called to heal abroad, and the beauty of human relationships. 

As three simultaneous trips take place in Bolivia this week, our neurosurgery and general surgery teams are working alongside each other in the city of Cochabamba, sharing in these experiences of training and equipping to build a healthier world. 

Our first-ever mission trip dedicated solely to cancer surgery begins at the Cancer Institute of Eastern Bolivia.

Our final mission trip of 2017 has been focused on training, serving patients in need, and strengthening our partnerships across the state of Santa Cruz.

Troubling symptoms and a difficult diagnosis can turn your life upside-down. For the past two years, this has been the case for Shirley, the first patient during our Fall Neurosurgery Mission Trip. 

Our Neurosurgery Mission Team has just landed in Santa Cruz where summertime temps are in the mid 90s. This week, veteran missioners and their Bolivian colleagues will offer training to a cohort of neurosurgeons and residents from across the South American continent. We are one in our mission to provide high quality neurosurgical care to those who greatly need it. 

There are many challenges to offering advanced care to those living in poverty, but this case from our Gynecologic Surgery Mission Trip shows how hope springs from such challenges when we work together, accompanying each other through difficult circumstances. 

Accompaniment, sharing in the joys and sorrows of someone's life and acting with love to help them live to their full potential, is the central work of mission. It is also the central work of many of the Bolivian women we are meeting this week on our Gynecologic Surgery Mission Trip.