We are so thankful for our incredible community of volunteers who donate their time to advance our mission of loving and serving people in Honduras. Our work truly would not be possible without you. Today we are featuring one of these amazing volunteers: Hetal Baman!
Hetal first went on a trip with Humanity and Hope in May of this year. She is a biomedical engineer who works at Johnson & Johnson in the trauma division. She is a foodie, avid traveler, and a master parallel parker! Most importantly, she is passionate about global health and creating permanent and sustainable change for under-served communities all around the world. Read on to learn about how her trip with Humanity & Hope sparked her passion for global health!
My name is Hetal Baman and I am a biomedical engineer by trade and global health storyteller by passion. Currently, I work for one of the global leaders in healthcare, Johnson and Johnson, as a research and development engineer for the trauma division. I learned about Humanity and Hope for the very first time in the spring of 2018.
I heard about a colleague of mine who travelled on service trips to Honduras every year. His name is Rodrigo Diaz and he is a board member of H&H. I’m not sure what drew me in, but I wanted to learn more. It was a couple years since I travelled to India to work in the slums of Delhi and I wanted a chance to experience a different organization. To be honest, I wanted a chance to feel a specific sense of purpose in my life. I really didn’t know what it was at that time but I couldn’t put it into words.
Rodrigo took an hour out of his work day to share the mission of H&H with me. He shared their vision of spreading love, building relationships, and the power of listening before doing. It was different from any other organization that I’ve learned of before. Fast forward to May of 2019 - my first trip to Honduras with Humanity and Hope United.
A few weeks before the trip, I learned that this specific trip would be geared towards providing medical care for the villagers in Remolino, La Coroza, La Cuchilla, and Brisas del Congo. As an engineer working in the field of healthcare, I was excited. I couldn’t wait to use the critical thinking skills I learned in school and apply it to understand problems that people were facing in the villages of Honduras. In the 7 days that I spent in Honduras, I learned more about the world than I’ve learned in the past 5 years combined. After my trip, I was committed to understand more about healthcare needs in the developing world.
Did you know that less than half of the world’s population has access to essential health services?
Did you know that almost 100 million people are forced to choose between food and healthcare?
Did you know that mortality rates from road traffic accidents are far greater than diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV combined?
My question is: What are we doing about this?
I began to educate myself about organizations whose main mission is to improve world health by spreading love. I believe there is a certain degree of ignorance within many people who were born into privilege. Many are unaware of organizations like Humanity and Hope. It may be due to their small and targeted reach to small villages around the world. It may be because some are not seeking to be part of nonprofits outside of donating money. Or finally, they are just unaware.
I decided that I needed to do something about this. Sure, I am just one person, but as Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
This is how Global Health Pursuit (GHP) was born. My mission is to create a community of passionate people, organizations, and social enterprises whose mission is to improve global health through the practice of loving others. I will do this by interviewing individuals who are involved in global health efforts and share their stories.
Humanity and Hope not only opened my eyes to a different way of serving others but it also helped me uncover my passions that were hidden deep within my soul. Humanity and Hope gave me a vision of what true prosperity looks like in the form of giving love. To be quite honest, I won’t ever be the same.
When you experience a love that full, you never want to let it go. I would love to hear about what you or your company is doing to improve world health, whether in your backyard or on a different continent. If you’d like to join me on my journey, please visit my website and subscribe: Globalhealthpursuit.com
Follow me on instagram: @globalhealthpursuit
Love,
Hetal