Celebrating National Nonprofit Day:

How Impact Global Health Alliance Global is Inspiring One Woman to Pursue Her True Passions…

For Anna Brown, pursuing a major in Human Resources at North Carolina State University Poole College of Management was a smart move. “My dad told me it was a good strong business degree. In all areas of business, you have to have the Human Resources aspect to it, ” she explained.  Anna would soon realize just how important the “human aspect” would become to her.

Anna grew up in Greensboro, N.C. attending Christ United Methodist Church. At a young age, she started going on the church’s mission trips, serving communities and meeting new people. When she was 16, Anna graduated to international trips, and spent her first mission abroad in Bolivia. “I fell in love with the Latin culture, also my eyes were opened to immense poverty,” said Anna. “I think I knew – halfway through my trip, I knew this is what I wanted to do with my life, and that it was my passion.”

Anna loved the Latin culture so much, she minored in Spanish in college and became fluent. However, after her second trip to Bolivia the project became sustainable. “It was amazing, but also sad for me, because they didn’t really need us to come back,” Anna remembered.

A passion renewed

In 2016, Anna had a new calling to the mission field. Her church had deep ties to Impact Global Health Alliance Global, a Raleigh-based global nonprofit that a longtime church member, Dr. Henry Perry, founded. Impact Global Health Alliance Global focuses on forgotten communities, where women and children die at alarming rates, because they have no access to basic health care or even knowledge of simple practices, like hand washing. “Impact Global Health Alliance knew how much our church had supported the mission, and Executive Director Andrew Herrera called looking for someone who could speak Spanish and attend a trip to the project site in Guatemala,” explained Anna. So, the church volunteered Anna and she gladly accepted.

Anna’s first trip to Guatemala was unlike any other mission trip she had taken part in before, mostly because of Impact Global Health Alliance Global’s community-based approach to the people. “It wasn’t people coming in and telling people, ‘this is what we think you need to do’, instead Impact Global Health Alliance built relationships with the community and asked, ‘what are your needs, what do you see working, what is the best way to approach this?’ We focused on their actual needs and not what we thought was best for them.”

Anna worked at Impact Global Health Alliance’ Casa Materna, a culturally-adapted birthing facility that provides women with vital health services during pregnancy, delivery and after birth check-ups. The Casas are strategically built to provide access for multiple communities. In order to ensure long-term sustainability, members of the community lead and facilitate operations there.

Working at home

As Anna continues to work with Impact Global Health Alliance Global, she’s also focusing on other ways she can help serve her community too. She’s currently working with two friends to start their own nonprofit, that focuses on children in foster care. “I just have such a passion for these children who are in need and hurting,” Anna said. “Being on these trips makes you realize how lucky we are to have access to health care, we don’t have to worry about something as minor as a cold turning into something devastating.  These communities do, it’s their reality.”

Since her first trip, Anna has organized and led two more trips to Impact Global Health Alliance’ project site in Guatemala. She’s already planning another trip for next spring. “These trips are so important to me, I’m already counting down the days to the next one.”

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