World Health Worker Week – celebrated for the third consecutive year, runs from April 5-11. This week serves as an opportunity to mobilize communities, partners, and policy makers in support of health workers around the world. It is a time to celebrate the amazing work that they do and to raise awareness of the challenges they face every day. This year’s theme focuses on why health workers count as the backbone of global health goals.
We also recognized World Health Day this week on Tuesday, April 7th. Since 1950, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the international community have celebrated World Health Day on April 7. The day always focuses on a relevant global health issue and this year’s theme is food safety.
As part of HVO’s recognition and celebration of these world events, we announced the recipients of our 2015 Golden Apple Award. This year we recognized eight outstanding volunteers and supporters of HVO’s mission to improve global health through the education, training, and professional development of the health workforce in resource-scarce countries. These individuals were nominated by their fellow volunteers and overseas colleagues for their contributions and work, which include overseeing the development of new projects, raising awareness of HVO’s need for volunteers and funding, monitoring the progress of active projects, identifying educational resources for sites, fostering partnerships to further HVO’s mission, and serving as mentors to their colleagues overseas.
World Health Worker Week affords an opportunity not only to honor these impressive individuals, but also to call attention to the contribution of all HVO volunteers, supporters and overseas partners.
HVO’s mission aims to improve access to and quality of health care by bringing training, education and professional opportunity to health workers, and this mission is carried out by health workers. The volunteers we recruit are highly qualified health care professionals who donate their time and resources to work with their colleagues in resource-scarce countries. They recognize the importance of access to education and professional opportunity to sustain and encourage their colleagues who are working in some of the most difficult circumstances. They know that by sharing their knowledge and skills, they are sustaining current health workers and preparing the next generation.
Of course, the heroes of HVO are not just our volunteers but our overseas partners as well. HVO only establishes projects where host countries and institutions actively participate in the creation and maintenance of the project. Each one aims not only to offer teaching and training opportunities at the site, but to prepare local personnel to one day assume the role of educator as well as provider. Many HVO volunteers have recognized the extraordinary efforts of their local hosts to accomplish project goals and improve health care for patients. As one volunteer to Honduras reported:
I can say I am impressed with the knowledge of the doctors we have met. They are dealing with overwhelming numbers of cases, with inadequate supplies and equipment, and adapting best practices to the reality here.”
On World Health Worker Week, we hope you will take the opportunity to honor the work of health workers around the world. Visit our Get Involved page or Ways to Give – you can even honor a health worker in your life with a gift made in their honor.
Thank you to all the hard working health workers who give so much of themselves to serve as the backbone of global health goals.