Clean water. Safe sanitation. Healthier homes.
Work alongside families, community leaders, and local professionals to improve the everyday conditions that support lasting health. Your chapter can choose a focus on Community Water Systems or Healthy Homes within one Public Health Brigades program.
Plan Your Public Health BrigadeExplore the Focus OptionsA reliable water supply and the infrastructure to use it safely belong together. Public Health Brigades connects community water access with household sanitation, hygiene, and healthier living environments.
Our core focus is WASH—water, sanitation, and hygiene—alongside home improvements such as eco-stoves. As part of Global Brigades, your chapter contributes to a broader approach to community health and development, supported by community health workers who serve their communities year-round.
See Public Health Brigades in action · Existing Global Brigades program video
Choose the focus that connects your chapter’s interests with community health priorities.
Help bring reliable water access to an entire community.
Work alongside community members and local technicians on a portion of a larger water system. Activities can include digging trenches, installing pipeline, and learning how water committees oversee fees and maintenance.
A system takes shape through the work of multiple groups over time. Your brigade contributes to that continuing effort.
See Water Systems in Action
Help families improve the spaces they use every day.
Work alongside families and local masons on household projects selected around local needs. Projects may include latrines, showers, water storage, drinking water filters, and eco-stoves.
This focus connects practical improvements with education on their use and care.
Explore Healthy Homes ProjectsChoosing your focus: Tell us which option interests your chapter. Our team will help match your preference with community priorities, country options, and active projects.
Understanding health means understanding how people live. Public Health Brigades gives aspiring healthcare professionals the opportunity to explore the conditions that shape wellbeing—and work alongside communities to improve them.
Learn how water access, sanitation, and the home environment influence daily life. Build the habit of looking beyond symptoms to understand the circumstances a person brings into a healthcare setting.
Help construct community water systems or household health infrastructure alongside local professionals. Connect what you learn about disease prevention to tangible projects that communities have identified as priorities.
Learn from families and community leaders, and participate in hygiene education. Practice explaining health concepts clearly while respecting local knowledge, priorities, and experiences.
Meet the community health workers who serve as a local first point of contact for primary health concerns and connect communities with Global Brigades’ health programs. Learn from their experience supporting families year-round, and explore how prevention, health education, and ongoing community relationships contribute to care.
Whether your interests lie in medicine, nursing, public health, or another healthcare field, this experience can help you develop a more informed perspective on the people and communities you hope to serve.
Connect hands-on work with the bigger public health picture.
Help with an agreed part of an active water or household project, following guidance from the people leading the work. Learn how each day’s contribution fits into a larger community plan.
Activities and construction tasks depend on your focus and the project stage.
Hear from community health workers about local health concerns, their role supporting families year-round, and how they connect communities with visiting health brigades.
Participate in hygiene education and, where appropriate, help support additional training for community health workers. Local teams guide these activities around community priorities and students’ preparation.
Learn why maintenance matters as much as construction. Explore how families, local professionals, and community committees sustain infrastructure over time.
Depending on the focus and project stage, contribute to community assessment or health planning. Community Health Action Plans help communities identify public health priorities and guide future infrastructure improvements.
20,334 beneficiaries of Community Health Action Plans
Reported separately from water access and household infrastructure outcomes.
Explore the experience now offered through the Community Water Systems focus.
Existing Water Brigades video · Historical branding retained in this design preview
Practical improvements that support sanitation, hygiene, and healthier living environments.
Household sanitation and safe waste disposal.
A private place for bathing.
Convenient access to water for everyday household use.
Household drinking water treatment and safe storage.
Cooking with a chimney that directs smoke outside.
Projects vary by community and household. Your chapter will learn which projects it will support during planning.
Community water systems, healthier homes, and trained local health workers contribute to work that extends beyond a single visit.
People gaining access to clean water
Through water systems built with partner communities.
Communities with improved water infrastructure
Supporting access to clean water across partner communities.
Households with new health infrastructure
Receiving one or more improvements, such as stoves, floors, showers, or sanitation projects.
Community health workers trained
Through Global Brigades’ broader health work, supporting primary health concerns and connections to health brigades.
Cumulative impact of Global Brigades’ water, public health, and community health worker programs.
These measures describe different aspects of the work and are reported separately; they should not be added together.
Partner with communities pursuing their health priorities.
Start with your preferred focus, then work with our team to identify a community project. Program options depend on local priorities and active work.
Countries currently listed for Public Health Brigades. Our team can explain which focus options are available for your chapter.
Bring students together around prevention, community health, and practical action. Start a Public Health Brigades chapter or explore a focus option with your existing chapter.
Work alongside families, community members, and local professionals on projects that support healthier living conditions.
Yes. Chapters can express a preference for Community Water Systems or Healthy Homes. Final arrangements depend on community priorities and project availability.
In this unified program concept, the water systems experience becomes the Community Water Systems focus within Public Health Brigades. Existing Water Brigades chapters can work with our team on the transition.
Water systems typically require multiple brigade groups working with community members over several months. Your chapter helps complete part of that larger project.
No. Projects are selected around household needs and the work available during your visit.
The current Public Health program provides guidance from local masons and preparation materials. Our team will explain the preparation and requirements for your chosen focus.
Eco-stoves complement the program’s WASH work by addressing the home cooking environment. Healthy Homes includes both WASH infrastructure and these additional improvements.
Students learn from community health workers about local health needs and their year-round role in the community. Opportunities may also include supporting additional training, guided by local teams and matched to students’ preparation.
The current program pages describe seven-day brigades. Our team will confirm the schedule and activities for your chapter’s focus.
Connect with our team to discuss your chapter, preferred focus, and travel plans.
Public Health Brigades connects your chapter to Global Brigades’ broader work in health and community development.
Selected logos from the current Global Brigades partner section.
Partner relationships and display permissions to be confirmed for the final page.
Help build the water systems and healthier homes that communities identify as priorities.
Plan Your Public Health BrigadeStart a Chapter
