HVO does not see many volunteers travel as a couple, so we are excited to highlight Justin Johal, MD and Ashlyn Fitzgerald, DNP, ARNP, MSN, RN, an anesthesiologist and pediatric nurse practitioner on a four-month volunteer assignment. After a one-month…
Dr. Louis Rafetto has been volunteering with the HVO oral health program since 1992. In that time, he has completed assignments in India, Peru, Colombia, Cambodia, Tanzania, and Nicaragua. “I’ve always been interested in volunteering,” said Dr. Rafetto. “I was…
Dr. Neil Kay has been volunteering with HVO’s oral health project in Vietnam for thirty years and in that time has completed over forty assignments. Dr. Kay first visited Vietnam with his wife, a physical therapist volunteering with HVO’s rehabilitation…
Chantha Hou, head of the hematology and flow cytometry laboratory at Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia has been working with HVO volunteer Dr. Luke Carter-Brzezinski since early 2024. Dr. Carter-Brzezinski is a UK-based hematologist who spent three months with…
Dr. Daisy Alapat became the director of HVO’s hematology project in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in early 2025. She had already volunteered for several years with the project in Peru, which she found profoundly rewarding. “I am currently a professor…
By Leslee Jaeger, MD In 2018, I decided to take a three-month sabbatical to do volunteer work in rural parts of Minnesota and to volunteer with HVO. I had already been working in Haiti since 2006, so I wanted to…
During Dr. Richard Henker’s trip to Lao Friends Hospital for Children (LFHC) in 2024, he collaborated with local partners to conduct a successful workshop focused on regional anesthesia for eleven anesthesiology residents. He was accompanied by several of his own…
དཔལ་ལྡན་འབྲུག་གཞུང་། གསོ་བ་ལྷན་ཁག། Royal Government of BhutanPhuentsholing Hospital Chhukha: Bhutan Authored By: Phub Wangdi, Team leader, Palliative Care Services, Phuentsholing Hospital THE JOURNEY BEGINS The journey of introducing palliative care services in Phuentsholing, Chhukha, began unexpectedly for me. One day, I received…
Ultrasounds are extremely useful in diagnosing many life-threatening conditions all over the body, including in the heart, lungs, kidneys, and bladder. They can determine if a patient’s lungs are filling with fluid and detect rheumatic heart disease in children. However,…
In 2016, nutrition specialist Dr. Susan Kleiner’s husband received a call from a friend looking for a dentist to join a volunteer trip to Can Tho, Vietnam. He asked Dr. Kleiner what she thought he should do. “I said, ‘Well…
By Katharine Lowndes, MBBS, FRCPath In 2018, when I was looking into volunteering opportunities, HVO stood out as – and remains – one of the very few organisations where haematologists can volunteer their expertise. I had previously undertaken some volunteer…
In December 2024, HVO and DI Skin Hospital and Referral Center (DISHARC) hosted a hybrid in-person and online symposium dedicated to pediatric dermatology for 110 attendees, 45 of whom joined virtually from as far away as Vietnam, Cambodia, Uganda, Saudi…