Volunteer: Liberia, Africa- JFK Hospital
Location:
Monrovia, Liberia
Job Description:
Project HOPE is recruiting volunteers for a long-term, ongoing project with the HEARTT Foundation and the JFK Medical Center in Monrovia, Liberia. This pilot volunteer program will focus on clinical care as well as coaching, teaching, and mentoring counterpart healthcare providers to build capacity and improve the JFK healthcare system.
Overview:
Emerging from nearly twenty years of civil war, the current state of Liberia’s health care system is poor at best. The apex of the Liberian healthcare system, the John F. Kennedy Medical Center, has reopened, but faces major problems that impede its operations: administrators and health care workers lack the necessary tools and skills to perform their jobs; after years of disrepair, looting, and inadequate treatment standards, patients continue to suffer poor quality of care; and students must deal with the consequences of years of inattention to quality medical education. With committed political leadership and international cooperation, Liberia is moving from a state of emergency to a state of improved efficacy and readiness, and Project HOPE is working to strengthen the Liberia health care system and assist with the implementation of multiple improvements.
History:
In 2008, Project HOPE partnered with the US Navy on the first ever Department of Defense public-private joint mission to Monrovia, Liberia. While there, Project HOPE provided roughly $3 million in donated product (vaccines, medicines, medical supplies and small equipment) to the JFK Medical Center and the Ministry of Health. Project HOPE’s 13-member volunteer team provided training to nearly 300 health care workers, and over 300 patients received care from Project HOPE’s primary care team. The value of the donated time by Project HOPE’s volunteer team working in Liberia totaled $105,000.
In September 2009, a three-person midwifery/labor and delivery team deployed to the JFK Medical Center as part of the US Navy’s Africa Partnership Station for two weeks. This team delivered a Midwifery Level I course to the JFK midwives and nursing staff, helping to improve capacity in the hospital and strengthen the JFK healthcare system through the coaching, teaching, and mentoring of the local providers.
Mission Scope:
Project HOPE, in partnership with the HEARTT Foundation and the JFK Medical Center, will send volunteer providers for long-term rotations on a continued and sustained basis. The first rotation will be three months, from
1 July-30 September 2010.
Volunteers will deploy from home, live on the JFK Medical Center campus, and will work in their respective departments under the supervision of the JFK Chief Medical Officer. The overall security situation in Liberia is safe but the country is still considered a post-conflict environment. Although all reasonable precautions will be taken to safeguard the volunteers while on the mission, all HOPE volunteers embarking on this humanitarian work do so at their own risk.
Funding:
The JFK will offer a monthly stipend, roundtrip airfare from their local airport to Monrovia and back, airport transfers to and from the JFK Medical Center, and free lodging in the physician’s on-campus dormitories. JFK will also provide free breakfast and lunch meals, Monday through Saturday. JFK will also provide visa waivers and will manage the in-country accreditation.
Recruitment:
To volunteer, please submit your resume by clicking the "Submit your application" button at the top of this page. Background, personal and professional reference checks will be performed for all candidates. This activity will be challenging physically and emotionally. A passion for medicine and helping people is a requirement. Flexibility toward accommodating change, adaptability, creativity, and a good attitude is also needed. Volunteers will be living and working directly with the JFK staff – there may or may not be other HOPE volunteers at the hospital at the same time, so an independent and adventuresome spirit is a must.
We are looking for the following qualified, board-certified volunteers:
1)Pediatrics
2)ER/Internal Medicine
3)Surgery
4)OB-GYN
