First year medical student from UMass Medical volunteers at Walking Unidos

I am currently in Leon, Nicaragua, although a medium sized city by most country's standards, this colonial style city is one of the main political, cultural, and historical centers of Nicaragua. I am taking Spanish classes in the morning, and volunteering in the afternoon for an organization named the Polus Center. Most of the Polus Center's activities revolve around assisting people with disabilities, especially people who have had amputations. Their projects, though, cover an immense number of fields including economic development, health education, legal services, employment assistance, procurement and distribution of durable medical equipment, infrastructure development, and the list goes on and on.

I've been exploring multiple projects within the organization or the past weeks. For example, I've had the ability to assist in building prosthetics from scratch for local people with amputations or missing limbs, most often caused by land mines which are still active from the wars in the 80s. To be able to accomplish a task definitively with my own hands in a few short days is a pleasure in itself. But after just completing the 1st of medical school, that quick translation of effort to tangible results is especially sweet. I will be starting soon working in a small rural town working on projects with more of general public health and development focus.