Blog
Fund Ukraine Refugee Shelter
We are supporting a transitional Refugee shelter in Lviv, a city in western Ukraine (around 70 kilometers from the border with Poland). This place is one of the last remaining large cities that remains somewhat safe.
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We are supporting a transitional Refugee shelter in Lviv, a city in western Ukraine (around 70 kilometers from the border with Poland). This place is one of the last remaining large cities that remains somewhat safe. Through close collaboration with couple of a brave and dedicated professionals; we strive towards raising resources so we can continue providing:
- Shelter and beds for 35 people in Lviv, as well as offering a place for rest and recovery for the incoming refugees. We are hoping to expand these locations to be able to expand to other shelters.
- Food for about 1000 people per day at the train station.
- Support Local Doctors that are working night shifts at a makeshift medical clinic at the train station, to treat people who have traveled for 24 to 36 hours standing up in a train to escape the conflict areas and have developed new health concerns from the long trip or have exacerbated existing health conditions.
- Helping those same people move forward and out of Ukraine by arranging bus transportation to Romania. Mostly women and children traveling alone because the men and teen boys have to stay and fight.
- A bus with 25 people capacity cost of $300 for the trip to Romania.
If you have been wanting to help and aren’t sure how to get involved, this is a way to get funding to people on the ground that we personally know well, who are doing everything they can against an impossible situation. Click the donate button and help us support this cause.
If you would like a tax write off for your donation, email mark@vawglobal.org so it can be managed through Humanitarian Social Innovations.
Please help raise funds to support this cause. 100% of every donation is being sent to support the people of Ukraine: https://www.empowered.org/Fund-Ukraine-Refugee-Shelter
We are back!
For the first time since the pandemic began back in 2020, we, VAW Global, have a medical team from Mississippi State University (MSU) in Guatemala where they worked along with Ami San Lucas, our local health partner since 2006.
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Upon arrival, interns are required to attend several orientations and workshops focused on professional development and cultural sensitivity, which will reinforce the training they received before their trip. After all of the on-campus and on-site trainings, the team had 6 intense days of work in clinics alongside Guatemalan Health Care Professionals. Thanks to that, interns from Mississippi State University have learned about healthcare in a global context, disease diagnosis, treatment courses, and clinic operations in an LMIC. Together, we provided care for 136 patients: 76 females, 43 children and 17 males!
However, VAW Global internship isn’t over yet for them. They still had an Education Day, Cultural Exchange/Immersion Days, and some more reflection to do before going back home. It is awesome, how everyone gets to meet amazing people, share stories , dreams and daily habits! Everyone involved is touched by the experience, and the friendships and memories made, last a lifetime!
Shadowing experience during the pandemic
Since November 2020, we, VAW Global Health Alliances, have designed online courses to be much like a course in continuing education, valuable to anyone interested in public health and development work. This is the beginning of a new chapter for VAW Global and also a new opportunity for interns from around the world to to gain experience while joining hands in creating equitable access to quality healthcare around the world from the comfort of their own home or office.
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One of our most proactive intern, Megan Wu – Yale University, shared: “I think this program can be very insightful for pre-health students or those who are interested in global and public health. Personally, I’ve got to learn a lot about doctor-patient interactions which is important to me because it can be hard to find a safe in-person shadowing experience during the pandemic.”
To set up an online shadowing course, VAW Global has to collaborate with our partners from Low-Middle Income Countries (LMICs), to share their expertise on a global scale, present medical cases, have their voices heard, and be a part of a global movement. “I really like that VAW included a Q&A LIVE session with the doctor. This gives you an opportunity to interact and ask question which is an in-person experience for the lab.” – said Megan.
During the length of the program, students will receive the access to learning materials on a weekly basic and a video recording after each LIVE session, which makes the learning process more flexible and . Or, as Megan mentioned “Lastly, I really like the program which is so well-organized and because each video is recorded with lots of flexibility so people from different time zone, have class, work or other activities can still complete the courses in their very doable way.”
Please feel free to find more information about our online courses HERE.
3 Short Ones about the LIVE Suture Workshop!
We meet with Doctor Roberto Sanchez, one of our physicians in Dominican Republic. We talked to him about the VAW Global LIVE Suture Workshop he leads.
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1. Where did you learn to suture?
“During surgery rotations when I was in college. I remember that on several occasions my colleagues and I used to go to the emergency room of a local hospital during our free time on weekends and volunteer to practice and learn more.”
2. What do you think are the most important sutures pre health students should learn?
“As a pre health student, it is very important to have a good theoretical and practical knowledge of the basics aspects of suturing and of the most basic techniques such as the simple interrupted suture because of its frequent use.”
3. Do you have any advice for future students joining the course?
“There are many advantages offered by attending the online suture course, such as the comfort of being at home, saving time, and having personalized classes in small groups; Students who have already joined us mentioned the fast learning feeling and the confidence to keep practicing while getting their questions immediately answered.”
Join our four-day online suture training today! Get 6 contact hours (0.6 CEUs) during our LIVE suture sessions with one of our best VAW Global Physicians in the Dominican Republic. Learn, practice and develop your basics suture skills from the comfort of your home … and you will receive a free suture kit! >> More information
Enjoy working anytime, anywhere!
We have telecommuted to our meetings for more than a decade, because we all live spread across the world. Below are some ideas we live by to help us be successful in this atypical work environment. We hope it will help you adjust and be successful at telecommuting.
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VAW Global employees have always worked from remote locations. Sometimes in a VAW Global office, sometimes at home, many times from an airport or hostel, but almost always without the “typical work environment” where you can interact with your co-workers face to face.
Routines & Exercises
Having a routine before work ensures a healthy mindset for you, a development of a high morale and a sense of higher productivity. These morning routines can be from waking up early and showering, getting dressed, doing exercise, having breakfast, etc. Even if you’re telecommuting and might not be in the same place as your colleagues physically, it’s advisable to still “get ready for the office” as you would at any other job, for your mental health and productivity at work.
It might be challenging to get 10,000 steps while working at your desk all day, but it is highly recommended you plan daily exercise or walks so you get your boost of the day. During work, ensure that you are drinking enough water, stretch your legs from time to time or vary positions while seated. Most importantly, make sure you are able to sit properly with the help of an ergonomic chair and proper office desk. It’s also advisable to take some time to rest your eyes to avoid eye strain.
Healthy meals and/or snacks
You are as productive as what you eat. Schedule your meals at a fixed time; this will not only help avoid having health issues, it will also adjust your body’s clock to know when you will be having lunch. Therefore, you will be more focused on your tasks at their time.
Make sure to have a healthy breakfast every morning to start your day. Plan your lunch ahead of time and have some snacks available at your desk during the day (we recommend fruits or seeds to keep your energy and health up). Try to avoid fat or sugary foods and drinks, as they will add unnecessary carbs to your body. Drink lots of water during the day and make sure you stay hydrated.
Socializing
Having a telecommute job can be a bit lonely; you are in front of your computer for most of the day, unlike an office job in which one tends to interact with bosses or coworkers directly which keeps up your socializing skills. That is why it is very important to set some goals to help you out with socializing, here are some tips:
- Go out, even if it’s a stroll or walking your dog at noon. It’s always good to stretch your legs away from the computer.
- Work in a coworking space or a coffee shop. This forces you to interact with people while you work.
- Plan things for outside working hours. Even if it’s going to a pottery class, going to the gym or grabbing a drink with friends.
Space
The work space must be very illuminated and it needs to have a good ventilation system.
- Having an spacious desk and good working chair makes you feel more content with your space as well as being good for your health (no back issues)
- According to studies, having a tidy space will help you be more focused on your work
- Colors are important, because they give out a sense of mood depending on the colors by which you are surrounded (ex: yellow stimulates creativity; blue helps you focus; purple stimulates problem solving)
- Music helps you focus and keep being productive. You can listen to any can of music that helps you feel like that but we recommend music without lyrics like classical music, groove or electronic music.
Work & Life: Create Boundaries
Organizing not only working schedules but daily habits, such as walking the dog during your lunch break or preparing your meals ahead of time, can help improve your mental health.
Working from a computer or especially a cell phone can give you access to different platforms all the time; that being said, answering your work text or emails while on your day off is not advisable.
Time your day so you can have a start and end time. Create a space for work that you can leave at the end of the day. Leave your laptop in your dedicated workspace. Turn the notifications “off” on your phone (if possible). Finally, a good practice is to leave the house and take a small walk when you finish working.
Sleeping hours
During this modern time, it is very common to sleep around 5 hours or less. Even if it is common, that does not mean it is a healthy habit, especially for a telecommute worker. When you telecommute, you need to create your own motivation to achieve your goals of the day. If you have not slept enough, a cup of coffee might bring you back to life, but it will not have you at your 100% and this impacts your productivity. You will get more results if you get at least 7-8 hours of sleep on the same schedule every night.
If you feel like remote working is for you, why not try to be a Recruiter for VAW Global and work at anytime and anywhere you like?
We are looking for Team Leader Recruiters to be in charge of recruiting new Outreach chapters at universities around the world. You will recruit new Team Leaders at universities. This is a part-time telecommute position that will be tracked with weekly goals that lasts. It is twice yearly position (you can participate in just one recruitment season or multiple). >> More information
THE VOICES OF CAMBODIA – Yuri Nwe (II)
It’s a real world we live in, and it can be hard to see the reality of life in the developing countries around the world. We are thankful for our volunteers like Yuri who jump right into the thick of the hardships & needs and offer to volunteer their time, and donate their energy!
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Four months have passed and I can still remember looking out into the distance and seeing a crowd of patients squatting on the ground as they waited patiently under the scorching Cambodian sun to see a doctor. More than anything, I can hear the babies’ wails, smell the scent of human sweat mingling with the ceaseless dust, and feel the weight of babies too small for their ages laying placid in my arms. For two weeks this past January, I joined a team called Volunteers Around the World (VAW) on a medical outreach to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Our team of twenty-one university students from three different universities (UNSW, USyd and SBU) set up mobile clinics in villages wherever and whenever we could. Abandoned car repair shops, backyards of village elders, school playgrounds and old temples became the centers from which we offered our services. Together we were able to help 774 patients by giving them treatment, medications and diagnosis that they would otherwise have to go to great lengths to obtain. I went into this outreach expecting to make a difference in people’s lives, not fully expecting the impact it would have on my own. Here are some stories of the people I met along the way.
I remember this first girl quite well because she came in complaining of acne. As I prepared to write the topical medication for acne, the doctor I was shadowing started speaking to her in rapid Khmer. She responded with single-syllabled answers, her eyes downcast, clearly hiding something. I sat in silence and observed her becoming intensely more vocal and distraught, until the doctor held up a hand to stop her. The doctor looked over at me and asked if I still thought she came in for acne today. I replied, “No.” He quickly scribbled on the prescription pad, but instead of handing her back the form, he passed it over to me. It was for Gynomax 1-0-1/3d. It was not acne for which she sought treatment, but for a sexually transmitted disease. He asked me to purchase the medication and to be discreet. She was pregnant from the ‘boyfriend’ she was arranged to be marry in a few weeks’ time. A sixteen-year old girl was about to be a mom and a wife. I watched her walk away with an official prescription for acne and the Gynomax tucked safely inside her pocket.
Another day I was on the intake station where I had to interview people with the help of a Khmer translator. One patient stuck to me particularly, because she had come to the clinic on the back of a motorbike. She was also 92 years old. She sat down slowly on the intake bench and I proceeded to take a history from her. When I asked her how many children she had given birth to; she replied, “thirteen.” I nodded and asked her, “How many of your children are still alive?” She swallowed and said, “One.” Under cause of death, I shakily wrote down ‘Pol Pot regime.” I could not even begin to fathom how much grief and pain this woman had experienced to have 12 out of 13 of her children killed in front of her and to have only her youngest live since the child was growing undetected in her womb. But there she was, sitting in front of me, talking about the children she fiercely loved and could have raised – as if her loss was just another simple fact of life.
On my last day at the pharmacy station, I read the script for a patient who needed Panol and cough medicine. While packing the medications up, I saw that he had presented with a cough, fever, night sweats and weight loss – symptoms that pointed towards tuberculosis. As I finally handed over the bag of prescriptions, I glanced over at the patient. He was a young boy of barely three years ago curled in his mother’s lap. Scribbled on his past medical history – tuberculosis.
And then it dawned on me – this child had already been through a full round of anti-TB drugs. The boy had already been subjected to the nausea, vomiting, night chills and unrelenting coughs of TB, and all within the first years of life. Yet, here he was, back with the same symptoms. I felt absolutely helpless. Anti-TB medication could only be bought at state-run pharmacies in the city, which were at least a two-hour truck ride away. The best thing I could do – as I watched the mother walk home – was to pray for his fever to subside. There were nights after a long day out in the villages when I couldn’t sleep thinking about what would happen to all these patients. VAW does an excellent job of including the local community and medical staff to make sure patients receive medical care after we leave, but the fact that so many people needed more help than we could provide was beyond unsettling. I began to realize that medicine was not as clear- cut as I had imagined it to be.
But the infuriation at the unfairness of it all was surprisingly invigorating. There was so much more that can be done, that should be done and as doctors, we have a chance to be in the thick of things, working towards making a real difference. Out there, receiving proper medical care could literally mean the difference between life and death – a fact that reinforces my passion for medicine and desire to pursue a life around it.
Top 10 Reasons to Volunteer Around the World
You may have heard people describing volunteering abroad as “life-changing” and wondered if they weren’t exaggerating a bit. After all, why would you spend your time working long hours in some remote village if you could be sipping cocktails on the beach instead?
Everyone who volunteers has a different reason for taking the plunge but in the end, what they all find is that it really is a life-changing experience. If you’re still not convinced, here are ten great reasons to volunteer abroad:
10. It’s Good for Your Health
Volunteering has tremendous health benefits. Think about it: you’re physically active so you reap all the health benefits of a good work-out – including building muscle and losing fat – and you don’t even know you’re exercising! Your mental health gets a boost too: volunteering can help fight depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and stress.
9. You Get to See the World
Volunteering abroad means you get to see new countries. What makes it even better is that you’ll travel to areas that you would never have thought of, away from the tourist traps, and see a side of the country that most tourists don’t get to see.
8. You Gain Perspective
Volunteering helps you gain a new perspective on things. You learn what really is important and that there’s no point in sweating the small stuff. First World problems will start to look really silly. After all, it will be hard to get upset that your local store doesn’t have your favorite soda in stock if you remember that people you’ve met in real life have to walk several miles just to get safe drinking water.
7. You Make New Friends
One of the best things about volunteering is the bonds you form. Your Facebook friends list will become filled with people from all over the world and you may form lasting friendships. You may also meet people who will become very important to you: future contacts for employment, people who can offer you a place to stay on your next travel adventure, even a significant other.
6. You Become Part of a Community
Part of human nature is the need to belong and be part of a community. Volunteering provides just that. People may welcome you into their lives and their homes and you may even be “adopted” by a local family who will look out for you.
5. You Challenge Yourself
Volunteering is a great way to challenge yourself and see just how strong you really are. It takes you out of your comfort zone and places you in unfamiliar surroundings and situations where you need to adapt. You’ll be surprised at how much you can cope with and this will give you the self-confidence to tackle any future obstacles in your life head-on.
4. You Learn New Skills
When you volunteer, you inevitably learn new skills. These can be skills specifically pertaining to your future career but you will also learn valuable life skills: how to work as part of a team, how to adapt to difficult surroundings, how to rise to challenges and solve problems, and so on. You may even learn a new language.
3. It’s Great for Your Career
When prospective employers see that you have volunteered, they will know that you’re anything but an entitled, self-absorbed snowflake who will crumble at the first sign of pressure. Volunteers already know how to deal with challenges and get along with other people. They can see the bigger picture and have already shown that they are willing to make sacrifices for the greater good.
2. It Helps you Find Your Passion
An unexpected benefit of volunteering is that it can help you find your passion. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, really: because most volunteer projects require you to be involved in a wide variety of tasks, you’ll soon learn which ones you love and which one you hate. Maybe you’ve never really liked children but after being in regular contact with little people who trust you, accept you unconditionally and show you a new way of seeing the world, you may find that you want to dedicate your time and skills to children’s health or education. You may even realize that the way things are done at home isn’t for you and that you want to do things differently.
1. You Help Make the World a Better Place
When you read all these reasons to volunteer, you may find yourself wondering why you shouldn’t just become a contestant on a reality TV show. It’s true that you can get most of these benefits from being on a show like Survivor, but volunteering has something that reality TV can’t offer: it makes a real difference. You may think that your contribution is just a tiny drop in the ocean of challenges facing the world but remember this: by its very nature, the ocean is made up of tiny drops. Like Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” Besides, in the bigger scheme of things your help may not have made a huge difference but for every person you did help, it has made all the difference.
Team Leader Profile: Arush Lal-Medical Outreach and Beyond
A few months back we caught up with one of our veteran Team Leaders and Chapter Presidents Arush Lal. Arush is a Business Major on the Pre-Med track and has led multiple teams on trips to Panama and Peru. Aside from being an outstanding leader, Arush hopes to blend his knowledge of medicine with business in order to make a real impact in global health.
Below is a Q&A we did with Arush that goes over what he hopes to make of his future as well as how his time with Volunteers Around the World helped shape his perspective.
Arush at clinic during on his first Medical Outreach trip with Volunteers Around the World to Bocas del Toro, Panama in May 2014
Q: How long have you been working with VAW?
A: Since August of 2013 after my freshman year. Briana reached out to me sort of out of nowhere and asked me if I wanted to lead medical trips, and I said, “yea of course why wouldn’t I want to do that?”
Q: So what is your life like outside of VAW?
A: I am a Business Administration Major and Pre-Med student at Georgia Tech. I originally started off as a Biology Major, but as I discovered I was more and more passionate about Public Health and Global Health I decided to switch over to business to get some of the other skills for that field of work. Right now I’m focusing on supply chain management and operations, and long term I’d like to use these skills to work on strengthening healthcare systems. Specifically, I want to explore how we can use mobile technology to strengthen healthcare, like using an iPad to train healthcare workers or data systems to track progress of patients in developing country.
Arush and his co-Team Leader, Samuel Mendoza, exploring the surrounding community after a long clinic day in Cusco, Peru in May 2015
Q: Given your unique academic background in comparison to some of our other volunteers and Team Leaders, what do you think draws people from different areas of study to a VAW trip?
A: I think a lot of it has to do with the unique nature of public health. Public health is focused on helping people which a lot of different people find amazing. Also there are a lot of different facets that go into public health systems, and whether students come from an economic standpoint, an international affairs standpoint or scientific standpoint, all of these different aspects to public health are equally important. I’ve actually been trying to create a global health major at [Georgia] Tech, and I was asking my boss who works at a global health agency what does it take to be a global or public health professional. He said you need international competency to know how to interact with people and systems from around the world, clinical literacy so you have technical knowledge of what areas of healthcare you’re impacting, a basic understanding of budgets and accounting when dealing with grants and proposals, and finally a basic understanding of policies related to healthcare systems when you go to other countries. So just there that’s policy, international affairs, business and science. All of those things come together in public health and it’s really important to bring teams of people together who look at public health with different lenses to make public health systems really work, and that’s something I’ve been trying to integrate with all my teams. Last year we had students from thirteen different majors all contributing in unique ways, and it made for a well rounded team that was able to do some really meaningful work.
Arush and his team from Georgia Tech, Georgia State and the Univeristy of Georgia after a clinic day on Isla Tigre in Bocas del Toro, Panama in May 2014
Q: Do you have any examples of how some of these people from other majors helped contribute to your team’s success?
A: Last year there was one day in clinic where we noticed that even though the clinic was going smoothly, we still had a lot of people bottlenecked and waiting in certain areas. One of our volunteers who was an industrial engineering major stepped up and asked if he could leave his work station and focus on solving the bottleneck issues. Next thing I knew he had his notebook out and was creating these different flowcharts trying to track where in the clinic we can be more efficient to eliminate the bottlenecks for our next clinic. It was something I never would have thought of yet his experience in engineering served as a huge asset to our team’s success. I think VAW provides a great opportunity to bring people from different areas of study together to work on public health issues, and I’ve really enjoyed that while working with VAW.
Arush and his team from Georgia Tech and Georgia State after their Anatomy class at the UNSAAC University in Cusco, Peru in May 2015
After the interview, we thanked Arush for the time he took to share his ideas and experiences, and we left with a rewarding feeling knowing how lucky we are to have people like Arush contributing so much to the work we do!
Portraying the Essence of VAW- A Profile of Drs. Reynaldo Diaz and Yokasta Paulino
When you first meet and get to know Doctor Reynaldo Medina and his wife Doctor Yokasta Paulino, it is easy to see they are a loving couple and a pair of doctors with a true passion for medicine. Having worked in both our Dominican Republic and Panama sites, the two have been with us longer than most of the doctors we work with today. Their love for each other is heartwarming to say the least, but the way in which they share that love with their patients is a true gift to witness.
Reynaldo and Yokasta began working with us back in 2013, when we first opened our site in the Dominican Republic. Since both are native to the DR and to the region in which our clinics are held, you could tell the two of them were eager to begin working right from the start.
Like all beginnings, the first few weeks of work with the communities were extremely chaotic and challenging. We had to find new communities and create relationships with complete strangers. We had to gather funds and find ways to supply clinics in a completely new environment. Needless to say, Reynaldo and Yokasta (along with everyone) were exhausted, but they showed no signs of quitting.
In memory of those early weeks, Mark Stanley, the CEO and founder of Volunteers Around the World, had this to say: “I had negotiated a deal to pay the hospital where Reynaldo and Yokasta were both formerly employed. The hospital, in turn, “lent” us a few of their employees (Reynaldo and Yokasta) to get us started in the region. Those first two weeks in the DR were rough, because, back then, we didn’t know we needed to control the number of patients per day. Our experience in our first Medical Outreach Site in Guatemala had always been in small communities so we could see the entire community in one day. In the DR, however, the communities were much larger and there were days when we had over 500 patients per day coming through our door! After the first two weeks were done, I asked Reynaldo and Yokasta about the money we were paying them. Since I didn’t really know the going rate for the daily wages of a doctor in the DR at that time, I wanted to know if the compensation we were paying them was a good wage. They both looked at me like I had 3 heads! They had no idea they were being paid! The hospital we had paid told them the job was a volunteer job! I was so impressed that they had the desire to work so hard as volunteers that I knew I wanted to hire them permanently and make sure they would get paid a fair wage for their labor.”
Drs. Reynaldo and Yokasta have since taken on the positions as co-Medical Coordinators in our site in Panama. The two are extraordinary examples of VAW at work. Stories such as these capture the essence of why we do what we do, and we can only hope that as we carry on our work we can find people as amazing as Reynaldo and Yokasta.
Volunteer your time. Donate your energy. Volunteers Around the World.
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▶️Upcoming internships:
https://www.vawglobal.org/upcoming-outreach-internships/
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