Tania Avila and Fr. Steven Judd, Maryknoll lay missioner and priest, respectively, remind us to leave space in our backpacks (and in our hearts and minds) as we prepare for travel. If our bags are fully packed - heavy with obligations and loaded with expectations - they can become a burden that prevents us from seizing the opportunities for mutual learning that our encounters offer.

Embracing solidarity assumes the truth well-expressed by Fr. Greg Boyle: “The measure of our compassion lies not in our service of those on the margins, but in our willingness to see ourselves in kinship with them, in mutuality.” Out of both necessity and desire, I’m learning to make a permanent place in my heart for the ills of our world while making sure I have additional room for life’s joys.

We may be tempted to rush into fixing and advising. Needs are urgent. Patients have waited for long-delayed surgeries, hospitals have waited for new equipment, and we have all waited to be together to advance our mission in person. But it is critical to remind ourselves: the first duty is to listen.

In early 2021, after months of dialogue and planning between Solidarity Bridge, Puente de Solidaridad, and our medical partners, we launched three series of virtual exchanges connected to the Solidarity Bridge Neurosurgery Program.

Latin American voices have been systematically marginalized in global health discussions. To begin to dismantle some of the structural barriers upholding this marginalization, we helped found the G4 Alliance Working Group on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC WG).

A recent administrative trip helped advance the projects of our neurosurgery program and allowed us to reconnect personally with many of our partners across Bolivia.

Our shipment of supplies arrived in Paraguay as the pandemic began to surge. The delivery was presented to the hospital as small source of solidarity and support in the midst of growing health crisis.

The coronavirus variant from Brazil, a more aggressive mutation of the virus, is causing COVID-19 surges in many areas of North and South America. In the face of this ongoing crisis, we remain committed to the common good.

We remember and celebrate the life-giving legacy of Isaac Goff, entrepreneur, philanthropist and cherished mission partner.

In the face of the devastating toll of the pandemic, like Jesus on the cross, we may at times feel forsaken, abandoned. But we are not.

Filling a 40-foot shipping container with medical supplies is a significant undertaking, but it is also the most efficient and effective way to addres the urgent needs of our partners and patients.

As we put 2020 in the rearview mirror and enter into Lent, the idea of the common good is foremost in my mind. How can I work for or contribute to the common good? And how does this relate to Solidarity Bridge?