Filling the gap between short and long-term missions
Throughout our extensive experience volunteering with other organizations around the world, we recognized a gap between long-term and short-term volunteer opportunities. While short-term medical missions temporarily provide medical relief, they often fail to offer sustainable healthcare. Conversely, long-term volunteer programs are able to maintain improved healthcare, but struggle to find volunteers who can afford multiple months away from home or work. GHR aspires to combine the best of both worlds, by delivering long-term healthcare solutions through multiple short-term trips that utilize a rotation of volunteers and strong partnerships with local NGOs (non-government organizations… aka non-profit organizations).
It’s all about the follow-up!
While volunteering with other short-term medical mission organizations, we found a lack of concern for long-term health; the emphasis was on number-of-patients-seen and “medical volunteerism”, as opposed to truly providing healthcare to those in need. GHR emphasizes the follow-up visit: returning to each community every 3-6 months to check on their progress, make adjustments, and truly learn how best to help them improve their health. We love returning to the same smiling faces, getting to know the families, and seeing their genuine appreciation of care from a familiar face. This is called building community. We love building community.
Partner with the people
It is our belief that partnering with local NGOs is the best way to support medically underserved regions, because local NGOs have a true understanding of the specific needs of each underserved region. Partnering with local NGOs also provides a unique opportunity to empower the local population to take healthcare into their own hands. We believe this approach is the best way to genuinely improve the long-term health of underserved communities, while also providing an opportunity for volunteers to share their love of helping others.