Guyana
Ve’ahavta has been working in Guyana, South America since 1997. We work in partnership with the Lions Club of Bartica, and under the umbrella of the Guyanese Ministry of Health and Regional Health Services. Our Guyana project is a development project that focuses on the long term goal of building local capacity of health care service providers and empowering local communities to take control over their health and well being.
Ve’ahavta facilitates multidisciplinary volunteer medical teams to Regions 7 & 2 of Guyana for two week projects two times a year. Our teams operate mobile medical clinics in rural communities. Working closely alongside local health care workers and focusing on health promotion and education are key priorities for this project. Volunteers pay a participants’ fee which covers the cost of travel, insurance, food, accommodations, and all local transport. Ve’ahavta staff coordinate all logistics and supervise the team in the field.
Ve’ahavta harnesses support from volunteers, and various project donors who have provided in kind donations of pharmaceuticals and other supplies. This support has allowed us to leverage our resources and strengthen our impact at the local level, and we are grateful for the ongoing support of our volunteers, donors and suppliers.
Ve’ahavta is always looking for skilled volunteers to join our projects. We are in need of the following skill sets:
Physicians: primary care, women’s health, pediatrics, dermatology, emergency medicine
Nurses: nurses direct triage and provide clinical support. Nurses can also play a role in health promotion and education.
Pharmacists: management & disbursement of pharmaceutical supplies. Experience with primary care & counseling of patients an asset.
Health promotion & education: sexual health, reproductive health, family planning, hypertension & diabetes, oral rehydration, sanitation
Laboratory Technologists: hematology, bacteriology, urinalysis, hemoglobin, blood sugars
Physical Therapists: dealing with chronic pain management in resource poor settings
Support: A physical role which provides general support of team.
Volunteers stay within communities they are serving and live alongside the Amerindian Aikiwao people that are indigenous to the Upper Mazaruni River Region and the Afro- and Indo-Guyanese population who are residents of Bartica and its surrounding Riverine communities.
In addition to direct health care delivery, the team has undertaken a number of ongoing public health initiatives in collaboration with local health care workers, including:
- Provision of glucose monitoring devises to local health posts
- Donation of hemocue machines to measure hemoglobin
- Distribution of multivitamins to youth and adults to combat the effects of vitamin A deficiency
- Distribution of mosquito nets to pregnant women and children below the age of 5 to combat malaria
- A yaws treatment program, involving the provision of oral penicillin
- A comprehensive Family Planning interventions for local women, men and youth, including distribution of contraceptives, as well as educational literature on prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections
- Distribution of iron sprinkles to combat the effects of anemia in young children
The scientific focus of our mission has been on trying to find inexpensive ways that health care can be delivered such that sustainable systems can be set up which will no longer be dependent on charitable organizations. As a result of previous mission interventions:
- Acquired childhood blindness or pathological eye symptoms from vitamin A deficiency, a significant problem 10 years ago, is no longer present in the region
- Yaws has been eradicated from the region
- There has been a dramatic reduction in malaria in the communities visited by Ve’ahavta and the Lions Club
Additionally, Ve’ahavta has directly facilitated the life-saving surgery of four Guyanese children, diagnosed during past medical missions, at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto via the Herbie Fund, a charitable arm of the hospital’s International Patient Program.
Our overall development objective is to increase the Human Development Index (HDI) of clients served by Ve’ahavta and the Lions Club in Guyana. This objective can be achieved in the long-term through the development of a health care model that will increase the capacity of our local partners. Our goal is to continue to strengthen the local systems for delivering primary care in resource poor environments, while continuing to collaborate with local NGOs and health care providers, and carry out achievable, capacity building initiatives while providing primary and preventative health care in Guyana.
Ve’ahavta is the recent proud recipient of a $150,000 grant from the Canadian Auto Workers Social Justice Fund, to be implemented over a three year period. This grant will allow Ve’ahavta to expand the capacity of our mobile clinic, as well as the capacity of local health care providers in Region 7 to provide medical services to their communities, including the establishment of a Maternal/Infant Health program in Region 7.
Volunteer Posting — Primary Care and Public Health Mission
Program Purpose: Ve’ahavta works in partnership with the Lions Club of Bartica as well as the Guyana Ministry of Health to facilitate multidisciplinary volunteer medical teams to Guyana twice a year to provide free primary care and health education, and to support clients and healthcare providers in remote, resource-poor health settings in Guyana’s rainforest. Ve’ahavta teams harness the skills and inspiration of able-bodied individuals with diverse experience as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and sexual and public health educators to act as Ve’ahavta ambassadors to provide relief and assistance to Guyana’s communities in need. Also recruiting 1-2 support positions to assist the team on the ground.
Program Description
Ve’ahavta has been working to improve standards of healthcare delivery and education in Guyana since 1997. Volunteers participate in a community-based medical development model in Regions 7 & 2 where the team provides clinical care to local patients through mobile clinics with emphasis on preventative health education, particularly sexual health education, diabetes, hypertension, oral hygiene, and maternal/infant health. Volunteers travel together under the supervision of a Ve’ahavta field officer.
Program Period: Two-week placement
Session Date: October 23rd – November 6th, 2011 Dates Confirmed
*Program Donation*: $3000 CAD
Qualifications/Requirements
Volunteers must participate in pre-trip orientation, work in-country within local leadership and in cooperation with the Ve’ahavta Site Coordinator and partner representatives, and attend a pre-trip pill-packing event at the Ve’ahavta office (dates to be determined).
Desired Experience
- Ability to work well as part of a team
- Responsible, positive, flexible and dedicated
- Previous cross- cultural exposure (Experience working with Caribbean and Indigenous communities an asset)
- Ability to work well under supervision
- Experience working with individuals from diverse backgrounds
- Comfort in different or difficult cultural/socioeconomic environments and interest in travelling and learning
- Preparedness, flexibility and resilience of character to handle pressures of working in different cultures with a foreign set of cultural/professional codes of conduct
- Comfort in different or difficult environmental conditions. Camping experience an asset.
- Previous volunteer experience with Ve’ahavta an asset (not a requirement)
Ve’ahavta will provide flights, accommodation, ground-transportation, logistical support, pre-departure training, assistance with travel, full orientation and supervision in the field.
All applicants must complete a volunteer application form, which includes a CV, two letters of reference, a personal statement, and a deposit donation of $500 (fee is non refundable upon your acceptance). Volunteers are eligible to apply for a stipend and/or payment plan if required. All applicants must attend an in-person interview. For further inquiries, or to receive an application form, please contact volunteerinfo@veahavta.org.
Volunteer Posting – Ve’ahavta-Lions Kinder Kit Youth Program
Program Purpose: To provide up to 10 volunteers with the opportunity to engage in hands-on Tikun Olam in Guyana, South America and distribute 2,500 Kinder Kits in Region 7, Guyana while supporting the Ve’ahavta-Lions Club of Bartica youth programs for children in the local community.
Program Description
The Kinder Kits program aims to provide educational supplies to underprivileged children. Without the proper tools to learn, a child’s success is dramatically decreased. 150,000,000 children around the world leave school illiterate and 1 in 6 children live in poverty in Canada. Ve’ahavta has committed to providing Kinder Education Kits containing the necessary supplies for a child’s academic year to impoverished communities around the world through our local and international partners.
Ve’ahavta has been working in Guyana since 1997 in partnership with the Lions Club of Bartica. The Ve’ahavta-Lions Kinder Kit Youth Program 2011 is recruiting volunteers to support in developing and providing creative educational programs for youth aged 7-14 of Bartica and the surrounding areas. Key areas of programming include: Literacy and Creative-Writing, Music and Singing, Arts and Crafts, Computer Skills, Math, Soccer, Cricket, and Steel Band.
Program Period: Two-week placement
Time Commitment: Two weeks
Session Date: August 7th – August 21st 2011
*Program Donation*: $3000 CAD
Qualifications/Requirements
Volunteers aged 18+ with international experience and/or a vested personal interest in the destination country. Volunteers must participate in pre-trip orientation, work in-country within the leadership and in cooperation with the Ve’ahavta Site Coordinator and partner representatives, and attend a Kinder Kits assembly event at the Ve’ahavta office (date to be determined).
Desired Experience
- Ability to work well as part of a team
- Responsible, positive, flexible and dedicated
- Cross-cultural exposure
- Ability to work well under supervision
- Experience and interest in working with children and youth (camp and teaching experience an asset)
- Comfort in different or difficult cultural/socio-economic environments
- Interest in travelling and learning about different cultures and peoples
- Preparedness, flexibility and resilience of character to handle pressures of working in different cultures with a foreign set of cultural/professional codes of conduct
- Previous volunteer experience with Ve’ahavta an asset (though not a requirement)
Ve’ahavta will provide flights, accommodation, ground-transportation, logistical support, pre-departure training, assistance with travel, full orientation and supervision in the field.
All applicants must complete a volunteer application form, which includes a CV, two letters of reference, a personal statement, and a deposit donation of $500 (fee is non refundable upon your acceptance). Volunteers are eligible to apply for a stipend and/or payment plan if required. All applicants must attend an in-person interview. For further inquiries, or to receive an application form, please contact volunteerinfo@veahavta.org.
