Celebrating Midwives: Honoring Community Care This week, we witnessed the quiet power and profound impact of traditional midwives—parteras—as we traveled to two of our communities. The experiences we shared reaffirmed something we already knew: midwives are not just caregivers—they are the heart of maternal health in our communities. Care Rooted in Respect In Playa Lorenzo, […]
Blog
This Year, Make Things Happen
A reflection from Paulina Szylin, Floating Doctors Dental Lead How do I write about those experiences that can’t even be put to words? How do I tell people what I’ve seen without being misunderstood or judged, is it even possible? And yet I feel such pull to writing and sharing the stories that I have […]
Leaving Comfort Zones Behind
Carmen and Sofia’s Story with Floating Doctors Carmen, our Dental Lead, and Sofia, our Health Education Coordinator recently completed their fellowships with Floating Doctors. The transition from their lives in Spain to off-grid living off the coast of Panama and working with fewer resources was challenging, but rewarding. Below, they share a bit of their […]
Accelerating the Fight Against Malaria
It’s World Malaria Day. The World Health Organization selected the theme “Accelerating the fight against malaria for a more equitable world” and this theme is right on point for our communities. While the risk of transmission of the disease is low overall in Panama, it is most prevalent is in the Comarcas, which are mostly […]
Medical
Our commitment to providing ongoing care to the communities we serve sets us apart from traditional medical missions. In Panama, we maintain detailed records of our patients’ health and treatment in more than 25 remote communities. The impact of a single brigade clinic in a remote region can be very high even if they don’t […]
Our Boats
While in the past we based our entire operation from a sailing vessel; at present, our model is to deploy our teams in small open boats called ‘pangas’ or in traditional Ngabe-Bugle indigenous dugout canoes called ‘cayucos’ to reach the target communities scattered across 10,000+ miles of archipelago and coastal mountains we serve. These smaller […]
How It All Began
“Always strive for the far shore. Don’t save anything for the swim back.” by Dr. Ben One of the most common questions I am asked (aside from “where are we?” and “can you come look at this weird rash?”) is how this all started. I’m never quite sure how to answer that—the true origin of […]
Our ED Reflects on 2021
This year marks the end of a year like we have never had before. After all of the 2020 COVID-19 devastation, we were eager to get back to work with a full team and volunteers, but also hesitant of the safety risk this imposed on our patients. With the support of the Ministry of Health, […]
A Solstice Message from Dr. Ben
For most modern urban folks, weather plays a minimal role. Sure, if it’s raining you might cancel taking your child to the park, but it takes pretty severe weather to stop most people going to work, going out to dinner, or doing most of the other activities that we have on our calendars. But this […]
Floating Doctors Volunteer Program 2021
“If our hopes of building a better and safer world are to become more than wishful thinking, we will need the engagement of volunteers more than ever.” — Kofi Annan Since March 2020 we have put a temporary hold on our volunteer program in response to the pandemic, and have been caring for our patients […]