Empower 4,000 Health Workers around the Globe

As 2018 comes to a close, at HVO we are proud to have had a busy year, with over 447 volunteer assignments completed, five new projects initiated, a peer-reviewed eBook on international partnerships published, and training provided to hundreds of health care providers. Those are some of the statistics of the year. Here are comments from an HVO volunteer and a colleague who received training.

Dr. George P. is an internal medicine physician who has volunteered with HVO on many occasions. After a recent trip to Nepal, he wrote:

"I am always impressed that wherever I volunteer with HVO, I find highly competent, intelligent, caring, dedicated, and altruistic physicians and other health care givers who are doing an amazing job of helping the people in their country despite limited resources. The health care workers always want to learn and improve their skills and are welcoming and grateful to volunteers who come to spend a short amount of time with them. I find it enriches my life to meet these kind of people and to spend some time with them."

In addition to providing training and education at project sites, HVO offers scholarships to health care providers who are early in their careers but have demonstrated strong abilities and leadership skills. One recent scholarship recipient was a physical therapist from Bhutan, Mr. Monu T. He completed four weeks of intensive training in Australia and wrote:

"It was the last week of our course. All sorts of emotion filled my heart. I was saddened by the fact the course was coming to an end and at the same time I was appreciative of my transformation. I was loaded with evidence-based, research-informed techniques and information. It isn’t any exaggeration; I learnt more in 4 weeks than what I learnt in 4 years in college."

Each of these people has had their life enriched and transformed by the experience. Thank you for your support in helping HVO transform lives through education.

At Health Volunteers Overseas, we believe that empowering people is giving them the skills to build their dreams. Since 2010, HVO has partnered with Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, Ghana, with a goal of improving trauma care and expanding their orthopaedic and plastic surgery residency programs.

Donald Lalonde, MD, FRCSC, is a Canadian hand surgeon who first volunteered at the site in 2012 and worked with the sole hand surgeon on staff. Unfortunately, hand surgery at the hospital required use of the main operating room, general anesthesia, and full sterility. The costs of such were unaffordable for most patients. Additionally, there were more extensive injuries that required use of the OR, and they took priority, so most hand injuries were left untreated. Dr. Lalonde was determined to introduce wide-awake surgery that he uses in Canada, which would enable hand surgery services to expand at a more affordable cost to the patients.

As HVO’s project director for the site, Dr. Lalonde worked with local staff to develop project goals to increase the number of trained Ghanaian hand surgeons, and to provide training in wide-awake surgery. With support from HVO’s sponsors, the American Association for Hand Surgery and the American Foundation for Surgery of the Hand, training has been developed and a hand therapy component has been added to provide a continuum of care for patients, further enhancing outcomes. The success of the procedure and the patient outcomes led the hospital to establish a special wide-awake minor procedure room in the hospital, which cut the costs of the hand trauma procedures in half and greatly reduced the resources needed and the garbage produced in surgery.

With each visit to Ghana, Dr. Lalonde has seen further development in the project, and he’s been pleased to have patients return to thank him and the staff for restored use of their hand. Dr. Lalonde has also arranged for colleagues in the US to partner with him to develop a webinar series to provide additional training to the Ghanaian surgeons and hand therapists. During the academic calendar year, they now have weekly online sessions, enabling the colleagues to bridge the Atlantic with information on improving surgical and therapeutic hand care.

Sharing this information has allowed more patients access to affordable hand surgery and given them the ability to move forward with their lives. Thank you for your support in making this possible!