This past Monday, the US observed the passage of Labor Day, an annual holiday celebrating the country’s labor workforce. For many school districts throughout the US, Labor Day also marks the start of the academic year. The dual significance of…
For Karen Stolman, MD the motivation to complete her first global health volunteer assignment came from falling in love. “It started with falling in love with the country of Costa Rica, and having already visited and being fluent in Spanish,”…
Access to obstetric care in Cambodia is improving rapidly. According to the 2014 Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey (2014 CDHS), 95% of expectant mothers surveyed received antenatal care, and the number of births attended by a skilled health worker increased…
Volunteering with HVO is an opportunity to go a bit outside your ‘comfort zone.’ Every volunteer, of course, defines his/her own comfort zone and experiences the challenges in his/her own unique way. So, in fact, no two volunteer experiences are…
Last year, as HVO marked 31 years of service, we shared an article co-authored by HVO’s Director of Program Design & Evaluation, April Pinner, MSPH, RD and Executive Director, Nancy Kelly, MHS — Health Volunteers Overseas: 30 Years of Leveraging…
Although 2018 Golden Apple Award Recipient Cynthia Howard, MD, MPHTM “had never really volunteered before,” when she first learned of HVO in 1996, the pediatrician already had ample experience practicing medicine in resource-scarce settings. “I had worked a bit abroad,”…
From March 2013 to May 2015, HVO volunteers delivered a series of continuing education courses, a leadership institute, and more than 300 clinical mentoring sessions to Rwandan physiotherapists, as part of a USAID-funded project. In total, 168 physiotherapists participated in…
Last week the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) released Acting on the Call 2018—the latest report on the agency’s effort to save the lives of 15 million children and 600,000 women by the year 2020. To achieve this…
As a dermatology resident, Alexia Knapp, MD, seized upon the opportunity to complete a rotation at the Regional Dermatology Training Centre in Moshi, Tanzania. The experience sparked an enduring interest in global health and tropical medicine, which led to multiple…
On July 5, 2017, the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) announced the launch of its Fellowship Programme in Gynecologic Oncology. This collaborative program—created with support from Mulago National Referral Hospital, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, and the Ugandan Ministry of…
Prakash Neupane, MD, a 2018 Golden Apple Award recipient, first heard about Health Volunteers Overseas during the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting several years ago. However, he was unsure if he would be able to complete an…
During his opening remarks at the 71st World Health Assembly (#WHA71) on Monday, WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the importance of partnership in the pursuit of universal health coverage. “By leveraging the experience, the skills, resources and…