As many of you may have seen via social media or heard from your friends, the College of Charleston MEDLIFE chapter sent 47 students to Lima, Peru to work on community development projects. MEDLIFE stands for Medicine, education, and development for low income families everywhere. The trip consisted of a reality tour (in which we toured the villages surrounding lima to understand their access to basic needs such as sanitation, plumbing, electricity, water, etc.). Four days of mobile clinics in which CofC students assisted on everything from general doctors’ visits, pap smears and mammograms, and filling cavities and extractions. And on one other day students built a staircase so people could access their homes safely and transport items up and down without the worry of falling. In addition to this building stair cases helps these people access land titles which in turn can help them break the cycle of poverty since a large majority of them are illegally squatting. These Immigrants come from areas of rural Peru and Venezuela where they are fleeing in hope to gain access to education, medicine, and an all-around better life in Lima. Poverty is a wicked problem which MEDLIFE actively works to solve through the holistic approach of working hand in hand with the community to provide education, medicine, and development. At the core, MEDLIFE believes working with the community side by side will prove to be a more sustainable relationship rather than relying on donations and aid alone. This is especially critical when local governments change all the time cutting funding and access. There is environmental resistance such as access to food, shelter, and disease which limit the amount of people able to live in these areas sustainably. Carrying Capacity varies from village to village which reflects the access to resources, standards of living, technology and electricity, and waste generation. These villages currently have no waste disposal system in place so they bury their garbage or leave it to disintegrate which negatively impacts their health. MEDLIFE’s mission has similar aspects to that of Hans Rosling’s teachings. That in order to improve child survival allowing developing countries or regions need to have access to resources, medicine, and education and the western worlds role to lead by example. One huge influence that MEDLIFE also draws their inspiration from is a man named Paul Farmer. He is most known from the term coined ‘Structural Violence’ which in an essence means the systems we have in place inadvertently create barriers to access fundamental needs such as education, medicine, and development. It is my hope that by reading this you all become more interested in issues in development and the importance of becoming a global citizen to combat these complex system problems we have. Paul Farmer has lots of wonderful work and I encourage you to research him more. Also linked is the MEDLIFE website. You do not have to be a member to attend a service learning trip and they happen every year. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to me (hesskr@g.cofc.edu) if you’re craving to have your eyes opened to the world. https://www.medlifemovement.org/ You can also follow MEDLIFE on social media: (Instagram)@medlifecofc . Our next meeting is April 4^th 7-8pm in SSMB 203 in which students will be sharing their experiences. I highly recommend you attend if interested there will be food.