Dr. David Ciesla found his way to HVO in 2020 through a colleague, Dr. Elizabeth Shick, who introduced him to the HVO oral health project in Nepal. At the time, HVO had shifted to an all-virtual program model due to…
By Patti Nicks, RN, MSN I have maintained an active connection to HVO since I first volunteered for an assignment in Vietnam in 2019. I closely followed the HVO website to keep track of opportunities to volunteer my services for…
Jill Binkley, PT, MSc, CLT traveled to Hanoi, Vietnam in October 2023 to provide physical therapy training to staff at K Hospital. She shared her story with us. The trip was an amazing learning experience for me, and I was…
For Betty Beard, what started as short-term volunteer assignment turned into a long-term commitment serving as the project director for HVO’s nursing project in Hai Duong, Vietnam. For the last five years, she has coordinated activities and mentored nurses at…
Tanzania, which has a population of over 63 million, has approximately 15 practicing oral and maxillofacial surgeons. These surgeons have limited access to operating rooms they need to treat patients. The introduction of intravenous sedation would allow them to treat…
Written by: Amy Sacco, RN, MS, OCN In March of 2023 while I was scrolling through my e-mail, a new post on the Oncology Nursing Society discussion board for Global Health caught my eye. It was an opportunity to participate…
Dr. Mark Duster and Dr. Hok Kimseng share, in their own words, the story of their partnership through HVO. Dr. Mark Duster: My first trip as an HVO volunteer was in 2016 to Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) in Siem…
Dr. Leila Srour has been a member and volunteer since 2014, when she crossed paths with HVO while working on a project in Uganda. HVO’s education-focused values and mission appealed to her, and she decided to volunteer with our pediatrics…
When Dr. Timothy Kauffman began volunteering with HVO’s rehabilitation project in Paramaribo, Suriname shortly after it launched in 1999, there were few practicing physical therapists in the country. Before the start of the HVO project, students all trained in the…
Earlier this year, Ellen Milan, RNC-NIC, traveled to Kampala, Uganda with HVO’s nursing education project. She has been making this trip nearly every year since 2001. Over the course of her 20 years of volunteering, Ms. Milan saw that most…
Drs. Sushil and Ankita Sagar have been father and daughter HVO volunteers since 2019. Dr. Ankita Sagar is the project director of the HVO internal medicine project in Costa Rica where she has also volunteered. Dr. Sushil Sagar has volunteered…
Dr. Robert Erdin made his first trip to Moshi, Tanzania with the HVO orthopaedic project at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC) in January of 2020. He had been looking for volunteer opportunities for orthopaedists, and he learned of HVO through…