2011 Mission Trip to Guatemala
For the fifth consecutive year, Belmont University’s Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing will be sending a team of health professionals and students to Guatemala for a Christian service project. This year’s trip will occur during the university’s spring break, March 6 – 12.
The mission trip was originated in 2007 by students in the School of Physical Therapy. Since then, students and staff from the other allied health disciplines in the College have joined the annual effort. Last year, a multidisciplinary medical team of 36 travelled to Guatemala City, where they taught at a Christian high school serving one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods and at a local university, served over 400 individuals at a soup kitchen each evening, and helped treat and immunize patients at several area clinics.

This year, a smaller team of faculty, students and clinicians will provide supplies, direct patient care, and train staff at the Children’s Hospital for Rehabilitation and Infectious Diseases in Guatemala City and at the Shalom Foundation’s newly opened Moore Pediatric Surgery Center which will serve children from across the country. Team members have been invited to guest lecture in the physical therapy program at Mariano Galvez University of Guatemala and in the occupational therapy program at Centro Universitario Metropolitano. In addition, the group will be traveling to two rural clinics outside of Guatemala City to determine needs and seek opportunities to develop professional relationships with their Guatemalan colleagues.
Team members will again blog about their experience throughout the week. You can keep up with their efforts and read about previous trips by subscribing to this blog.
This year’s mission team includes: Renee Brown (School of Physical Therapy faculty), Tamara Garvey (School of Occupational Therapy faculty), Jamie Adam (School of Nursing faculty), Amanda Woodall and Julianne Russell (OT students), Stephan Graham, Lacey Little and Sara Rademacher (PT students), JennaLynn Drake (Nursing student), Susan Masie (occupational therapist), Gloria Isaacs (occupational and music therapist), Nathan Smith (physical therapist), and Ally Lifsey (nurse).