Global Brigades is an international non-profit that empowers communities to meet their health and economic goals through university volunteers and local teams.

A Holistic View

Global Brigades uniquely implements a holistic model to meet a community’s health and economic goals. Our model systematically builds community ownership and collaboratively executes programs with the end goal of sustainably evolving to a relationship of monitoring and guidance.

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Empowered Communities | All Programs Implemented

# Community Name Country Population
1 El Zurzular Honduras 600
2 El Canton Honduras 500
3 El Ojochal Honduras 250
4 Palo Verde Honduras 250
5 Guaricayán Honduras 185
6 El Jute Honduras 380
7 El Junco y Joyas Honduras 200
8 El Encinal Honduras 185
9 Fray Lazaro Honduras 550
10 Tomatin Honduras 250
11 Piriati Embera Panama 780
12 La Concepción Honduras 570
13 El Espinito Honduras 450

Access to Legal Resources

Our Legal Empowerment program supports the holistic model with four core initiatives: legal clinics, legal case resolution, human rights workshops and community bank awareness.

Legal Clinics

Legal clinics offered by Global Brigades combat the issue of distrust in lawyers by providing free legal clinics. Panamanian lawyers, with the assistance of volunteers, offer legal advice to communities, families, and individuals with unresolved disputes or questions. These clinics are meant to provide no-cost access to legal services that were previously denied or unavailable.

Legal Case Resolution

Global Brigades accepts family law cases for resolution, such as marriage, divorce, child recognition, custody and support. Volunteers perform interviews and intake procedures that are used by the Legal Empowerment staff to resolve the cases that would have been unattended completely or otherwise unresolved for many more years.

Legal Empowerment Workshops

Legal Empowerment volunteers facilitate workshops on complex issues such as gender vs. sex, legal methodologies to protect against and prevent violence and discrimination, right to education, sexual rights in Panama, and many others. These workshops are presented to women’s groups, students, and the community at-large. These workshops provide a safe place to discuss nuanced situations that impact life on a daily basis, while respecting the cultural diversity of the community.

Community Bank Awareness

In order to further support the training and development of our Microfinance Program, volunteers review and present an educational workshop on the by-laws of a given community bank, or caja. This presentation will be directed towards all members of the caja, allowing community members to become more comfortable with the legal guidelines established by and for their community bank.

Success Indicators

Over the next three years from 2015-2017, we aim to achieve the following long-term Success Indicators:

  • 85% of family cases receive a certificate or decision by the court
  • Females represent 90% of human rights education participants
  • Indigenous community members represent 20% of legal clinic participants
  • Reach 40% of the beneficiaries of the Ministry of Social Development programs through educational human rights workshops
  • Provided 25 communities with access to legal resources
  • Provided 2,500 community members with access to legal resources

2017 completed indicators

  • 208 legal consultations provided to community members
  • 11 family cases resolved

2016 completed indicators

  • Provide legal consultation to 180 community members through legal clinics
  • Provide 8 new communities with access to legal clinics
  • Initiate 45 new family cases
  • Resolve 9 family cases
  • Provide human rights education to at least 250 4th-6th grade children
  • Provide human rights education to 700 participants

Annual Reports

This DONATION is non-refundable

This DONATION is non-refundable Global Brigades, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Your donation will be used to further Global Brigades' mission and will be allocated toward the program you selected. This donation will not be utilized to fulfill a chapter or a volunteer's fundraising goal. Read Global Brigades, Inc's full Donation Refund Policy here.

Looking to donate to support a volunteer's fundraising goal? Find their Global Brigades Chapter by searching our Chapters map and then selecting their upcoming brigade. If you need help finding their chapter, you can ask the volunteer to send you their brigade's specific website link or you can contact us.

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