Volunteer and Employment Opportunities

Want to volunteer but unable to travel at this time? EngenderHealth has a video volunteer op which you might be interested in.

Posted August 26, 2010

Reach the Children has been working in Africa for 14 years now.  They are in urgent need of Midwife volunteers to make a trip to Kenya.  Midwives will be asked to work with local midwives teaching and training.  Reach the Children will depart for Kenya on Oct. 21 and return November 5th.  The cost for the trip is $3,950.  This includes airfare, housing, food, transportation and a Safari during the last days of your stay. If you can lend a hand, please email Patty Liston  or call her at 801-915-6524.  

Posted August 11, 2010

Hello everyone! I am currently based in Indonesia, working on the USAID-funded MCHIP program. We are working with 3 district hospitals and 6 community health centers. I would love to have some volunteers who might be able to come for 4-12 weeks to assist with on-the-job mentoring of Indonesian midwives in these facilities. The schedule is flexible, but ideally I would love to have 3 volunteers in the October-December time frame, and then at least 3 more in the January-May time frame. Some examples of the type of work include:

1. Assisting the midwives to correctly use the partograph

2. Demonstrating labor support

3. Providing technical updates for the staff on various clinical topics, such as use of MgSO4 for pre-eclampsia, breastfeeding, postpartum family planning

4. Demonstrating/supporting to staff with early initiation of breastfeeding and kangaroo mother care

5. Assisting the staff with infection prevention practices

6. In general, just working with staff to make services more efficient, more evidence-based, and more mother/baby friendly.

Those are just a few examples. I will send more information to whoever is interested. It looks like I will be able to cover airfare, and hopefully some lodging costs. I would do an orientation here in Jakarta before you would go to the districts.  We have an MCHIP office and staff in each of the districts to help facilitate things. If you have any interest, please send an e-mail to me at ahyre@jhpiego.net with the following information:

1. When are you available to come?

2. For how long could you stay?  I will need to give priority to anyone who could potentially stay for 6-12 weeks.

3. CV or description of your background

4. Please let me know if I have met you previously in workshops or through ACNM DGO!

Indonesia is a wonderful place to work, and I hope this might be a good entry for some of you into international work. Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Anne Hyre, CNM, MSN, MPH

Posted August 10 2010

For Autumn Semester (September 5 – December 2010) College of Nursing IUBAT, Dhaka Bangladesh is looking for volunteer teachers in the following areas:

• Maternal and Child Health Nursing (Classroom and hospital supervision)
• Introduction to Nursing (Classroom and lab)
• Medical Surgical Nursing (Classroom and hospital supervision)
• Community Health Nursing (Summer only)
• Nursing Research (Autumn only)

Our greatest need just now is for clinical supervisors with maternity nursing experience. Previous experience as a nurse educator is not required. Classes are in English. We have prepared lessons, exams and assignments. We welcome volunteers in any health discipline who have a passion for development work. Click here for more information about this project and support available for volunteers. If you know of anyone interested, please ask them to contact us at info@bangladeshhealthproject.com.

Cheers,

Alex Berland

Senior Adviser Health Sciences IUBAT Bangladesh

Adjunct Faculty

School of Pop'n Public Health UBC Canada

To learn more about the IUBAT College of Nursing www.bangladeshhealthproject.com

Call for Internship Applicants

UCSF Safe Motherhood Program
Fall 2010 – Winter 2011

Background

The mission of Safe Motherhood Program at the University of California, San Francisco, is to prevent maternal deaths by promoting women's health and human rights. This international research program is part of the UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, which engages in the advancement of new reproductive health technologies and development of innovative programs to improve reproductive health. The Safe Motherhood Program is also a member of the Women’s Health and Empowerment Center of Expertise (COE), one of three centers within the University of California Global Health Institute. The primary goals of the Safe Motherhood Program are to:

1. Conduct rigorous, relevant and timely research resulting in new and applicable knowledge
2. Reduce pregnancy related death and disability
3. Ensure maternal survival through principles of respect, dignity and equality
4. Create direct and practical links from research to policy to implementation
5. Train health care workers in low-resource settings
6. Raise community awareness of maternal health
7. Disseminate information and innovations globally

Working with distinguished colleagues in a variety of countries, the Safe Motherhood Program has the knowledge, skills, vision, technology, and energy to make a real difference in the advancement of women’s reproductive health throughout the world.

Non-pneumatic Anti-Shock Garment (NASG)

In many poor countries women deliver at home, often without skilled attendants or at clinics with limited services available. If complications arise and a woman bleeds heavily, one, two or all of the “three delays” (Thaddeus and Maine, 1994) may impede her ability to access timely treatment. Many women do not survive these delays. In recognition of the direct and indirect root causes of maternal death and disability, the Safe Motherhood Program works to ensure all women have an equitable opportunity to survive childbirth. A major research effort of the Safe Motherhood Program, the NASG is a low-technology and low cost life-saving devise used to treat shock, resuscitate, stabilize and prevent further bleeding in women with obstetric hemorrhage (www.lifewraps.org). Use of the NASG as part of standard management of shock and hemorrhage has demonstrated promising outcomes for women in low-resource settings, where appropriate health care providers and technologies are limited or non-existent. To date, NASG use has reduced maternal mortality and morbidity by over 50%.

Internship Opportunity

To build upon the early and promising data, a randomized cluster trial is underway in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Specifically, the trial addresses the question of whether the early application of the NSAG at midwife-led maternity clinics, before transport to a Referral Hospital, will decrease maternal mortality and morbidity. The internship will take place in the Copper-belt of Zambia and support the start-up of the randomized control trial of the NASG in 24 midwifery-led maternity clinics. The intern(s) (2 or more interns are needed) will work with the clinics during their transition from Phase 2 study (women with obstetrical complications transported to referral facility) to Phase 3 of the research study (women with obstetrical complications transported to referral facility in the NASG). Specific activities will include: Observing clinical procedures at the clinics and supporting clinical protocol adherence, observing data collection and supporting research protocol adherence, helping/training data collectors become familiar with data collection forms, matching data collection forms begun at the clinic with data collection forms completed at the referral facilities, supervising cleaning and completion of data collection forms, and training new providers (midwives, residents, medical officers) in the addition of the NASG to emergency response for hemorrhage. The intern(s) will receive mentorship and supervision from the Safe Motherhood team members both in Zambia and in the US during the field experience.

Deliverables

Weekly reports on progress, participation in weekly calls/Skype with Project Coordinator are expected.

Qualifications

• Professional degree, graduate student or junior faculty in the health or social sciences (such as medicine, nursing, public health, anthropology, sociology, etc.)
• Previous experience in health or social science research
• Knowledge of global sexual and reproductive health, maternal health preferred
• Ability to work well with partners
• Flexibility and willingness to travel
• Highest preference for those with some midwifery/obstetric experience or those who have worked on field-based research projects
  

Timeline
The internship requires a minimum eight-week commitment (Fall 2010 – Winter 2011) to live and work in Zambia. Preference will be given to applicants who can remain in Zambia longer than 8 weeks.

Expression of Interest
To apply for the internship, please send a current resume and cover letter to Ms. Elizabeth Butrick (ebutrick@globalhelath.ucsf.edu) with copy to Ms. Jennifer Clark (JClark@globalhealth.ucsf.edu) by August 15, 2010.

Haiti Health Foundation

The Haitian Health Foundation relies on volunteers to: Travel to Haiti to supplement current staff with skills and resources, including volunteer medical professionals, electricians, plumbers, diesel mechanics, computer experts, and general maintenance personnel. For more information about volunteering in with Haiti Health Project HOPE is looking for CNMs interested in deploying to Deschapelles, Haiti to work as a Project HOPE volunteer at the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS). This hospital is about 60 miles NNW of Port au Prince in a safe, secure location, one of best hospitals in Haiti and now the only hospital with a brand new prosthetics lab, fitting and conducting PT/OT rehab for amputees. HAS is close to Canges and the “Paul Farmer Hospital”/Partners in Health,  where a lot of collaboration is done in public health.HAS operates 6 public health clinics in their region in addition to the Hospital. So a lot of CNM training, coaching, mentoring to be done. For each rotation, I’m looking for (1-each) CNM to perform each rotation or combined rotations if they can stay longer. Preference is for Creole or French speaking CNM, but not required to perform work.HOPE pays all transportation, lodging, meals. Support site provides bed, sheets, hot/cold water, good meals, clean water, ground transportation. Please let me know if you have anyone interested in supporting.

Length of Stay

Frederick Gerber, Country Director Iraq/Special Projects

Primary means of contact: fgerber@projecthope.org Alternate: Tel USA Area Code +1.540.429.4561

Also In Haiti

St. Boniface Haiti Foundation

 St. Boniface Haiti Foundation has been active in Haiti for 25 years. The recent earthquake and subsequent devastation of Haiti's Capitol city, Port au Prince, has meant that the St. Boniface hospital is now overwhelmed with patients. St Boniface is preparing a data base of medical personnel who would be interested in helping in Haiti. View and print the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation Health Care Professional Volunteer Form

Vounteering with Grounds For Health

Grounds for Health (GFH), a Vermont based international women's health organization, is seeking experienced women's health providers (nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, ob/gyns and general physicians) to volunteer on cervical cancer prevention training and screening campaigns in Latin America and Africa. They are currently working in Mexico, Nicaragua and Tanzania.

The GFH program focuses on bringing early detection and treatment services to rural coffee-growing communities. GFH volunteers spend two weeks working side-by-side with local medical providers both during pre-campaign training sessions and then throughout the campaign week.
Strong Spanish language skills are required for all sites in Latin America and a willingness to work with translators is necessary for anyone interested in participating in Tanzania. Kiswahili and English are the languages in Tanzania. Three of the four current sites are in Latin America, thus the demand for Spanish speaking clinicians is significant. Upcoming trips:
November 2010 to Northern Nicaragua
January 2011 to Kigoma, Tanzania (likely full)
March 2011 to Chiapas, Mexico
May 2011 to Northern Nicaragua
More information about Grounds for Health and a volunteer application are available on their website at www.groundsforhealth.org or you can email Volunteer@groundsforhealth.org.