How Steps Without Borders Came to Pass

The idea is not a new idea, its not one that has plagued the country for years and it does not move us closer to ending poverty but the idea is one that holds dear to my heart as it is something I got to experience and see and one that I hope touches every end of the Earth that is in need of it.

It all started with a college trip, not so much a mission trip but an education hands on awareness trip that would later birth the idea of Steps Without Borders. My college of William Jewell is known for its well established connections across the world and one of those connections landed me in Ahuas, Honduras. One day my friend Ian came to me with the mission trip and asked me to join as it was a trip my school had done for many years but it had an interesting twist to add to it. The normal trip consist of students going to Honduras and for half of their time there they stay with a family and help the family out in whatever they might need, although their is a language barrier these families are always accepting of any help. However Ian wanted to add something different to this trip, him and the faculty had an idea to add a separate medical branch to this trip that consist of a separate group of students looking to be doctors or nurses join and help out in the clinics they had in Honduras as well as bring medical supplies over. At first, the idea seemed way above my league, sure I was a Biochemistry student with the interest in medicine but to go oversee in help out when I was still learning anatomy seemed scary. After a lot of convincing I joined the trip. After three plane rides, one consisting of what was as big as a crop duster, we finally made it to the super rural area of Ahuas. Within the days of helping we got to assist in handing out vitamins, viewing a live birth as well as several other surgery but the one event I am sure my friends will remember is dislocating a poor mans hip due to a language barrier and medical devices.

At far sight, we all say a man stumbling to make his way to the clinic, as he continue to limp in, in our heads it was easy to tell what was wrong, he side was hurting. As my friends ran over to assist the man and prop him on their arms they reached to pull him up so they could gather him and help in the clinic, little was known at the time but the man had an injury on his right side and when they went to assist they ended up harming his left side as well as his right, but that's not where this story gets sad. The sad ending of it all is after a long surgery the man left the clinic limping and using a tree branch we had found as a crutch.

As someone who has had crutches in their life ( for two years...yeah i know right), my heart cried because I remember being over the idea of using crutches and saw it as limiting me and decided one day to throw them away without second thought and to think that someone needed them while I had decided it was a privilege to have them made me wish there was some way I could have given him mine. Being able to have freedom to move should not be a privilege but a right we all have especially when it comes to medical devices we do not think twice about. As we see it as a limiting and binding us, someone else might see it as freeing and life changing.