These are stories directly from our volunteers and members.
In September 2023, Dr. Ashley Serrette spent two weeks at the Kabale University School of Medicine as the first volunteer at HVO’s pediatric project. The project was initially launched in 2019, but, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteer travel was…
Since 2007, Dr. Rick Henker, the director of HVO’s anesthesia project in Siem Reap, Cambodia, has been taking his students from the University of Pittsburgh to Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) to teach, learn, and connect with other students and…
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…
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…
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…
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…