On August 20, 1897, a British army surgeon named Ronald Ross peered through a microscope at the gastrointestinal tract of a female mosquito and found what he was looking for: the malarial parasite, unmistakable and confirming what he had suspected for years. The mosquito was the vector. The mystery ...

There are roughly 1.2 billion young people between the ages of 15 and 24 living in the world today. Despite growing up in wildly different national, economic, and cultural circumstances, their underlying goals tend to be the same: dignity, real opportunity, meaningful participation, and a future wor...

A new mother in a highland community outside Huancayo has delivered her baby at home. There was no lactation consultant in the room. No postnatal nurse to check the latch. No one to answer the questions that arrive in the first hours of a newborn's life, the ones that determine whether breastfeeding...

 In 1736, Benjamin Franklin founded America's first volunteer fire brigade after a ship fire tore through a wharf, warehouses, and neighboring houses in Philadelphia. Twenty-six neighbors signed up. More followed.

That instinct, to organize, to show up, to solve a problem together rather than wait ...

The first time Michael Leuchtenberger brought a group to FIMRC Costa Rica, it was 2024. A day of service. A group of young members from a religious organization in Concord, New Hampshire, showing up to help, learning what it means to work alongside a community that is not your own.

That kind of day...

In Uganda, youth smoking prevalence sits at 5.7%. In Peru, e-cigarette use among adolescents has shown a significant increase in recent years. In Costa Rica and Ecuador, flavored nicotine products are moving fast through markets that were not ready to regulate them.

Behind every one of those number...

Soap and water. That's it.

Of all the interventions in public health, handwashing consistently ranks among the most effective at preventing infectious disease — respiratory illness, diarrhea, healthcare-associated infections, even maternal sepsis. It costs almost nothing. It requires no prescriptio...

Every year on April 25, World Malaria Day highlights the global fight against one of the world’s oldest and deadliest diseases.

For those interested in global health volunteering, it also raises an important question:
how can individuals contribute to malaria prevention in real communities?

This y...

Every April 11, Costa Rica comes alive with national pride, honoring Juan Santamaría—a young hero whose bravery helped protect the country’s sovereignty in 1856.

For participants in FIMRC’s Global Health Volunteer Program (GHVP), this is more than a cultural moment—it’s a unique opportunity to expe...

Global health volunteering is rarely just about the time in the clinic.

It is about showing up, fully, in a community– learning its rhythms, its traditions, and the way people come together. Some of the most meaningful moments happen outside of structured programming.

Holy Week—or Semana Santa—is ...