Dr. Brian Hollander, longtime HVO volunteer, was traveling through Nepal in 1978 and saw a need for basic dental care and education. At the time of his initial trip, there were only thirty practicing dentists in the country of twenty-five…
Dr. Michelle James, pediatric hand surgeon and chief of orthopaedics at Shriners Children’s Sacramento, had always wanted to volunteer but felt she needed to wait for her kids to be grown and out of the house. When her daughter took…
Dr. George Pantely, a cardiologist, and his wife Mrs. Sharon Pantely, a nurse, have spent over a decade volunteering together with HVO projects in Asia and South and Central America. They had long been interested in volunteer work, but had…
For over twenty years, Suzanne Brown, CRNA has been volunteering with HVO all over the world with assignments in Guyana, Laos, Belize, Bhutan, and Cambodia. She got her start when HVO Executive Director Nancy Kelly contacted the American Association of…
In 2017, the group Advocacy for Global Health Partnerships published a statement of ethical principles to guide policy regarding short-term global health engagements called The Brocher Declaration. This statement laid out six ways organizations involved in global health volunteering can…
After a long hiatus as COVID-19 shut down borders and stalled travel, HVO began sending volunteers overseas once again. This summer, volunteer Dr. Mark Koh Jean Aan, clinical associate professor and head and senior consultant at the Department of Dermatology…
2016 Golden Award honoree Kay Ahern, PT, CHT has volunteered twenty-six times in twenty-three years. Kay Ahern, PT, CHT has completed twenty-six assignments in six different countries since she began volunteering with HVO twenty-three years ago. For the eight years…
Drs. Glen Crawford and Suzanne Abkowitz Crawford have been volunteering with HVO’s orthopaedic project in Tanzania since its beginning. They discovered HVO when an HVO volunteer presented a lecture on volunteering and teaching to Dr. Crawford’s senior residency cohort. Both…
In 2015, Dr. Phuong Thi Thanh Nguyen was awarded The Wyss Scholarship for Future Leaders in Global Health and traveled from Hue, Vietnam to New York City to study dermatopathology for six weeks at Columbia University Medical Center. The experience,…
Health Volunteers Overseas is closely monitoring the situation caused by the global outbreak of COVID-19. HVO project sites are temporarily suspending placement of volunteers thru May 31st.
Dr. Sam Baker came to Bhutan out of a desire to volunteer in a rural, resource-scarce country and stayed because of his love and respect for the country and people. He has now been volunteering annually in Bhutan with HVO’s…
What are they doing now? Mubashir Jusabani’s dream of becoming a physician began at an early age, after breaking a number of bones as a child. During his visits with the orthopaedic physicians, he felt their compassion and dedication. He…