NOTES FROM THE FIELD

HVO Volunteer Trip Reports

HVO requires all returning volunteers to submit reports on their work abroad. HVO Members can find more volunteer reports the HVO KnowNET.

Orthopaedics in Mongar, Bhutan Oct - Nov 2011 from Robert S. Derkash, MD
Mohs Surgery and Dermatopathology Teaching Program in Costa Rica by Carrie Kovarik, MD
Wound & Lymphdema in Cambodia, October 2011 Blog from Mary Hill, MSN & Cathy Harley, BScN, MBA
Oncology in Honduras, July – Aug 2011 from Lisa Kennedy Sheldon, PhD, APRN-BC
Orthopaedics in Malawi, January 2011 from Eric Fornari, MD

What People are Saying about HVO

What's So Special About HVO by Rita Feinberg
A Longtime Affair with HVO by Lena Dohlman
A Community of Volunteers by Toni Sander
The Structure of HVO by Richard Fisher
HVO’s Impact in Viet Nam: Beyond Improving Health Care to Empowering People with Disabilities by John A. Lancaster

A Note from Abroad

Chenda Sem is the chief anesthetist at the Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Dear Gentle Professors and Teachers, I am CHENDA, on behalf of anesthesia staff, AHC staff and in the name of Cambodia would like to show our gratitude very strongly. Thank you very much again and again for your invaluable time, effort and your own financial resources spent to fly a long way to teach us since 2002. Now in 2010 you’ve pushed us from limited anesthesia knowledge, from a few things that we had and small procedures we had done, until now we almost have everything that you have at home and with very modern anesthetic machines we can do very complicated procedures such as Open Heart. All these things occur today because of you all trying the best way, the best solution and the best heart to help humans in the same world go in the same direction with the goal to improve and develop global health care, especially in anesthesia technique and care to developing countries such as mine. This makes me very happy. Even though I was not there, we are very proud to hear that AHC’s nurse anesthetist, Mr. Bunrumly, gave a speech to a thousand CRNAs at the AANA conference. For all your hard work for many years now the result is well-known worldwide. For this event I would like to thank you and appreciate the best heart in each of you that is awakening, handling and supporting us to have everything nowadays. For these improvements and development I will never forget the head of this program, Mrs. Suzanne Brown, a good leader, a good teacher and a great woman! Thank you Suzanne Brown very much. At the end I would like to pray to ask all Cambodian well-known ancient gods and the world to give you all the best wishes, long life, prosperity and wealth to each of your families. Thank you very much again and again to my all teachers. All my warm regards, CHENDA SEM

Learn More about Volunteering with HVO

Featured in the January 2012 Journal of Professional Nursing:
Global Partnerships for Professional Development: Cambodian Exemplar
"Two teams of U.S. volunteers and one of their Cambodian partners, a nursing education coordinator at a nongovernmental children's hospital, offer their experiences in collaborating, including the mutual benefits to both of such a partnership and the lessons learned…" Co-written by HVO Volunteers who traveled to Cambodia.

Featured in the March 2011 journal Orthopedics This Week:
Bringing Advanced Orthopedics to Africa
HVO's Orthopaedics Overseas program in Ghana, West Africa, was born of extensive coordination among a number of organizations. The staff and volunteers deal with an inordinate volume of patients...and perform heroic lifesaving and limb salvage every day.

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