According to the World Health Organization’s recent report, “World Health Statistics 2016,” 1.7 billion people are affected by neglected tropical diseases each year, cardiovascular diseases and cancer take the lives of more than 10 million people under the age of 70 annually, 2 million people a year are newly infected with HIV, and there are 9.6 million new TB cases and 214 million new malaria cases.
The challenges facing the global health community are significant, but improving health outcomes for individuals around the globe is not impossible, especially if we draw on our greatest strength: the power of people working together.
For nearly thirty years, HVO volunteers and their overseas colleagues have been improving and expanding care in resource-scarce countries through teamwork and collaboration. Our partnerships with health systems and educational institutions around the world help bring knowledge, training and opportunity to health workers, who, in turn, provide life-saving care to their communities.
In the year ahead, we will share stories that illustrate how teamwork and collaboration profoundly impact the health of individuals and communities. Through the reports of our volunteers, the feedback of our partners, and the accounts of our trainees, we will show how people working together can bring essential care to patients in need.
In 2017, HVO will continue to foster teamwork and broker relationships to expand the reach of our programs and volunteers. We will start new projects and continue to improve our internal systems to increase volunteer recruitment and public awareness of the global health workforce crisis.
We will also continue our yearlong celebration of the three decades that our organization has worked to transform lives through education. On Friday, April 28th, we will host a day-long 30th Anniversary Symposium in Washington, DC. The event will bring together HVO leaders, volunteers, members and partners to celebrate the impact that HVO has had in resource-scarce countries around the globe, collaborate to improve HVO projects, and grow HVO’s global reach.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram for updates leading up to and during the Symposium. Help share the story of HVO by spreading the word about our organization among your personal and professional network. Give to support HVO as we begin writing our critical next chapter.
By working together to improve the quality and availability of health care in resource-scarce countries, we can help address the many challenges currently facing the global health community. Together, we will continue to transform lives.