We’re thrilled to introduce you to Casey Jereb, our new HEAL Internship Coordinator. She will be inheriting the role from Will Yokeley, who has generously volunteered his time over the past five years to engage and support student interns volunteering at the Roatán Volunteer Pediatric Clinic (RVPC) through our Health Education & Advocacy Liaisons program. After completing her undergraduate studies at UC Davis in Environmental Toxicology with a medical emphasis, Casey applied to volunteer at the Roatán Volunteer Pediatric Clinic (RVPC) in 2016. While she had been thinking about pursuing a career in medicine, her mind was not completely made… read more →
Written by Global Healing Program Manager for Honduras, Latin America and Vietnam, Sarah Fernández, PhD. People thrive by the goodness of others. During my time in Vietnam, I am always struck by the openness, trust and dedication that make caring for the vulnerable children and newborns in the intensive care units (ICUs) possible. I want to share a success story with you and feel like simply describing a checklist and procedures won’t quite get to the heart of the matter. We work with ICU physicians and nurses at the Vietnam National Children’s Hospital (VNCH). During our lunch breaks there is… read more →
Written by Jim MacPherson, Chairperson of the Global Healing Board of Directors and President & CEO of the healthcare consulting firm MacPherson Strategies. As we celebrate World Blood Donor Day and recognize the generosity of blood donors who give selflessly in order to save lives, we also want to recognize the systems that make it possible to connect donated blood to patients in need. This year’s theme, “Give Blood. Give Now. Give Often,” encourages donors to give back. We want to take this opportunity to ask: how can we give donors in developing countries more opportunities to do so? This… read more →
Written by Dr. Simone Bennett, Global Healing volunteer and Advisory Board member. Getting to know the Public Hospital Roatán I was not sure what to expect when I first showed up at the Roatán Public Hospital to volunteer in the newborn wards and pediatric clinic. Having spent time in hospitals in developing countries before, I had an idea what I might find. However, despite knowing that I was in Honduras and resources would be poor, I was surprised to find how lacking they were given that not far away was a beautiful Caribbean resort with full amenities serving hordes of… read more →
Written by John Donnelly, Ph.D., Global Healing President Last week more than 80 blood bankers from the USA, Europe, Latin America, and Africa, along with industry and government representatives, policymakers, academics, professional societies and nonprofit organizations gathered for the International Blood Safety Forum in Arlington, VA to discuss the current and future needs for safe blood in low resource countries around the world. The speakers and the audience generally agreed that over the last 15 years much progress had been made in introducing the technologies needed to produce safe blood products for low income countries (LIC) and lower middle income… read more →
Today – March 8, 2017 – we celebrate International Women’s Day. At Global Healing, we work everyday with incredible women who are improving care for children and mothers in developing countries. Learn their inspiring stories in our latest newsletter: View on Mobile Device>>
Written by Chris Gresens, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Blood Centers of the Pacific, BloodSource, & United Blood Services I’ve seen too many fellow human beings die: in some cases directly in front of me; other times via mental images conjured from the reports I review. Most often these have been infants or toddlers – those of us who are most vulnerable and, as a result, least able to withstand malaria-induced anemias and transfusion-related infections and myriad other insults to their bodies. Other times these have been new mothers whose lives were forfeit due largely to a lack of blood products that… read more →
Written by Amy Cook, Global Healing Chief Communications Officer Since joining Global Healing in 2009, I have been privileged to experience first-hand how Global Healing programs improve patient care in developing countries. As I conclude my tenure as Board Chair, I want to express my gratitude to everyone who has given their time, resources, and support to our work. You have made a direct impact on the health of children and mothers worldwide. As we enter a period of new leadership and growth for our organization, we are pleased to welcome our new Chair, Jim MacPherson, and two new members, Lori… read more →
We run for health. In November, our team will be running the Berkeley Half Marathon 10K. We’ve been spending our early mornings and evenings after work training to prepare, some of us building up to the 6.2 mile distance, while others try to improve their race time. Our motivation is twofold: while our workouts improve our personal health (the American Heart Association says running 75 minutes per week can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease), our fundraising efforts as a Berkeley Half Marathon charity partner contribute to the health of people around the world. We run for Haiti. We’re running… read more →
Know. Do. Teach. Our simple and effective model enables our partner sites in developing countries to improve healthcare locally and in neighboring countries. When we first began our work in the Republic of Georgia, newborns and children in the country were unable to receive life-saving surgery to correct congenital heart defects. Through the efforts of a committed team of Global Healing volunteers and Georgian surgeons, the first pediatric open-heart surgeries in the entire Caucasus region were performed in 1996 at what would become known as the Jo Ann Medical Center (JAMC). The Center expanded services to meet the diagnostic and surgical… read more →