These are stories directly from our volunteers and members.
By Yangden Yangden is the charge nurse for the palliative care service at Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital in Thimphu, Bhutan. She and her colleagues, with support from HVO volunteers, established the first palliative care service in Bhutan. They…
Authors: Vanessa Teed, MSN, RN, CEN, CGNC & Kristin Ferguson, DNP, MBA, RN, OCN In early October 2024, Vanessa Teed and Kristin Ferguson met for the first time for dinner in Hanoi, Vietnam. They had briefly connected over email and WhatsApp…
By Madeleine Hines, DPT I found HVO while I was searching for an organization that did sustainable service travel for physical therapists. I read the websites of many organizations that assisted medical professionals in voluntourism, but HVO’s mission and model stuck out…
For background information on Dr. Erdin’s team, partnerships, and previous trips, read last year’s blog: https://hvousa.org/blog/building-relationships-and-improving-orthopaedic-healthcare-in-tanzania/ Dr. Robert Erdin has been volunteering with HVO’s orthopaedic project at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center in Moshi, Tanzania since 2020, leading team trips and…
Dr. Larry Greenbaum recently volunteered with HVO’s pediatric projects at Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) in Siem Reap, Cambodia as well as at Lao Friends Hospital for Children (LFHC) in Luang Prabang, Laos, lending his expertise in pediatric nephrology. While…
Dr. Jill Derstine has been an HVO member and volunteer since the 90s and in that time has served as director for a number of HVO’s nursing projects. She is also a current steering committee member along with Mrs. Patty…
In August 2022, HVO volunteer Dr. Mark Koh Jean Aan, clinical associate professor and head and senior consultant at the Department of Dermatology of KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Singapore, headed to Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy (HueUMP)…
In March 2024, Jordan Tropf, MD, traveled to Moshi, Tanzania to teach at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC). He was the recipient of an HVO Traveling Orthopaedic Surgery Fellowship. The fellowship provides funding to defray the costs for senior orthopaedic…
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…