Surgery and Healing in the Developing World - Dartmouth-Hitchcock

A Commitment to Voluntary Health Care Service
volunteers return from the field feeling that what they have gained in terms of new
perspectives and insights far exceeds what they gave.
The volunteer will be inundated with impressions, insights, feelings and questions
that are important to his own growth as a person either religiously or individually.
A daily diary recording all these experiences and impressions for future
consideration and introspection will add to the experience. This is also a good way
to begin to anticipate interpretive needs to help others learn when one returns from
the field.
Finally, while in such different circumstances and having such unusual experiences
and impressions, one must keep a keen sense of humor, have moderate expectations,
develop a tolerance of ambiguity and foster the ability to cope with failure.
With those kinds of attitudes, one will surely return a better person with the ability
to share a good experience with others and enhance the church’s competence in
understanding other cultures.
As we all strive to improve our capability to live in a global community and to
improve our relationships with others, there can be no better way to put our ideals
into practice than to become a volunteer health care worker. The experience has
changed many lives and it can change yours.
Resources
1. Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Pembroke Place, Liverpool L35QA, U.K.
2. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Keppel Street, London,
WC1E 7HT, U.K.
3. World Health Organization, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland.
4. Panafrican centre for emergency preparedness and response (WHO/EPR) P.O.
Box 3050, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
5. Topical Doctor. Royal Society of Medicine, 1991.
6. Volunteer Unit, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 100 Witherspoon St., Louisville,
KY 40202.
7. Christian Medical and Dental Society, Global Health Outreach, P.O. Box 7500,
Bristol, TN, 37621, U.S.A.
8. World Medical Mission. Boone, NC, U.S.A.
17
3