Many teams of U.S. physicians, dentists, nurses, and helpers have been volunteering their services in Gracias and surrounding communities for decades.  For the first few years, we organized one volunteer team of about 50 people, but since the need was so great and the interest by volunteers multiplied we began taking two teams each year.  Each team saw between 1000-1300 patients in the villages, and about 20 surgeries were also done at the government hospital. Conditions were difficult for surgeons at the hospital so a surgery center of our own was built in 2010 so that more surgical teams could serve many more people and under safer conditions.  

After our surgery center was completed, we have continued to take two large teams to villages but have added many more weeks of surgical teams.  With the exception of the pandemic cancelling brigades in 2020/2021 and reducing operations in 2021/2022, we typically have had about ten separate week-long volunteer teams doing surgeries and procedures in gastroenterology, orthopedics, gynecology, urology, ophthalmology, vascular, plastics, and general surgery.  We have two operating rooms and an endoscopy room so we’ve been able to perform about 30-40 surgeries each week, plus many more endoscopies or minor procedures. 

Brigade team weeks are usually in October, November, January and February.  Most of the volunteers on these brigades come from western Michigan, but we have had medical professionals from across the U.S. join us.  Each volunteer typically donates not only their time, but also their finances, as we seek to cover the travel expenses of these trips.