I find it difficult to watch the news coming out of Haiti without feeling like I want to use my clinical skills to help. I am not alone in feeling like this as Médecins Sans Frontières has been inundated with calls from doctors wanting to help.
The stark reality is, however, that most of us would be of little help without additional training or experience of working in the developing world in the aftermath of natural disasters. It got me thinking about the humanitarian work carried out by many British doctors, not only at times of crisis but, throughout the year and what organisations like the BMA can do to support them.
The BMA’s international committee runs a humanitarian fund supporting healthcare workers working in projects in the developing world. Looking through the list of projects it supported last year, it is humbling to see how ordinary doctors are using their time to make such a big difference.
In Ghana, for example, a transplant surgeon and nephrologist have worked with local doctors with the long term aim of setting up a kidney transplant service. Kidney dialysis over a long period of time is prohibitively expensive and so it is critical that developing countries like Ghana can offer transplants.
Other projects have involved working in war torn countries like Afghanistan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Mozambique. Some of the projects are quite simple such as training community care workers to improve maternal health and infant mortality or supporting public health education programmes. What they all have in common is that they invest in local people making a sustainable difference long after the project teams have returned the UK.
Applications for this year’s Humanitarian Fund are now open. If you are looking to work on humanitarian projects in the developing world or know of colleagues embarking on this sort of work you should visit the BMA website.
If you want to find out a more about working overseas it is also worth having a look at Broadening Your Horizons, a comprehensive guide for doctors wanting to work overseas. For medical students interesting in getting work experience outside the UK the BMA has recently launched extensive guidance on medical electives.
Tags: Humanitarian work
Useful guides. I think there are quite a lot of doctors who, at different stages of their careers, who would like help overseas or in disaster zones but don’t know about how to put themselves forward. Maybe the agencies involved should be more proactive when it comes to ‘recruitment’.