Trabajando Con Esteban: Healthcare Work in the LGBT Community

I came to Spain to work with a Health internship with an LGBT organization called Fundación Triangulo. I worked different hours depending on the needs of the organization, from scheduling rapid HIV tests to tabling with the Spanish Red Cross on the street. Spain takes its summer vacation in August, so when my internship location closed for 2 weeks, I worked with another organization called COLEGAS, another LGBT group, and helped educate the local community about LGBT rights as well as volunteered at a food stand to help during the Fiestas de Lavapies, one of three religious festivals celebrated for the first 2 weeks in Madrid.

Through this work, I was able to work closely with members of the LGBT community as well as local citizens and develop my interpersonal, educational, and organizational skills. Being able to observe how HIV tests are done and the struggles that Spanish members of the LGBT community still face was eye-opening and something that would have been difficult to do in the United States. I was given a glimpse into how a local NGO works and the intricacies that come from the day-to-day job. Since one of my majors is Global Health, I was able to apply what I learned in my classes and experience working in the public health sector, albeit in another country.