Our Impact
Train one provider. Improve care for generations.
HVO invests in the people who deliver health care every day. Through locally led partnerships and skilled volunteers, knowledge and expertise remain long after a volunteer returns home.
Why Training Works
A different approach. A longer-lasting impact.
Many medical missions focus on providing direct care. HVO deliberately invests further upstream — training and mentoring local health professionals so that knowledge and skills remain long after a volunteer leaves, reaching more patients for years to come.
Direct service
One volunteer treats patients. The impact ends when the visit does.
HVO’s model
One volunteer who teaches reaches colleagues, their students, and the patients they go on to treat — for years.
A Trainee’s Perspective
“If a patient has to come all the way to my hospital, it can take ten hours. This training will ultimately save a child’s life.”
Dr. Jimba Jatsho, Bhutan’s first and currently only trained pediatric nephrologist, is passing on knowledge learned from HVO volunteers. He brought together twenty-three doctors from district hospitals for three days of training on how to recognize and manage common pediatric kidney diseases and how to perform ultrasounds and emergency dialysis. More trained providers mean better access to life-saving care all over the country.
Dr. Jimba Jatsho — Pediatric Nephrology, Bhutan
Our Approach
Partner. Train. Strengthen.
Partner
Local institutions identify their own educational priorities. Programs are built around what partners say they need.
Train
Experienced health professionals share knowledge through teaching, mentorship, clinical education, and professional development.
Strengthen
Skills remain within local institutions, helping health professionals educate others and strengthen care over time.
The Ripple Effect
One provider
Gains knowledge, skills and confidence.
Colleagues & students
Learn from what they share.
Their institution
Develops stronger curricula and protocols.
Professions & health systems
Gain greater local expertise and leadership.
Patients
Receive stronger care over time.
Four decades of impact.
14,000
Volunteer assignments since 1986
245
Partner institutions
120
Active projects
3,100+
Health professionals trained annually
Stories of Impact
Real people. Real change.
Health Professionals
“Thanks to my own training, I now feel confident training other people. I do not feel alone.”
Chantha Hou, head of the hematology and flow cytometry laboratory at Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, has been working with HVO volunteers since early 2024. Ms. Hou was solely responsible for bone marrow exams and interpretation of flow cytometry for the hospital. After receiving training from Dr. Carter-Brzezinski and other HVO volunteers, she was able to train another staff member to help her in the lab.
Institutions
Building a new generation of physical therapists
“In the end, this project has resulted in a cadre of physiotherapists, among which some are also scientists at PhD level… The current faculty consists now of dedicated physiotherapists, who were all trained at our program. They know all HVO volunteers because they once received education from them. [To go from] 9 PTs in 1995 [to] more than 75 PTs in 2023 working in Suriname, almost all of them having graduated in Suriname, is a success story.” — Dr. Tony Chang
Volunteers
“My imagination expanded after this experience… But the most exciting thing for me was how kind and eager to learn everyone was.”
Dr. Kenta Matsushita — HVO Volunteer
Global Reach
Local expertise. Global reach.
HVO works with partner institutions across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America, supporting health professionals where they are needed most.
Your support helps knowledge go further.
Volunteer. Give. Partner. Be part of a healthier, more equitable future.