[Washington, DC - April 7, 2012] Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO) is pleased to announce the recipients of the seventh annual HVO Golden Apple Award. As part of its World Health Day observances, HVO created this award to recognize the extraordinary educational contributions of volunteers to international program sites. Each HVO volunteer honored with this award has demonstrated a strong commitment to HVO's educational mission by working on curriculum development, teacher training, didactic or clinical training, or the enhancement of educational resources.
The recipients of the 2012 Golden Apple Awards are: Eugenio Beltrán-Aguilar, DMD, MPH, MS, DrPH, Diplomate ABDPH; T. Desmond Brown, MD; Linus Chuang, MD, MPH, MS; Lawrence Gordon, MD; Martin Hobdell, BDS, PhD, MA; Jared Hubbell, MD; Mark Makumbi Kayanja, MD, PhD; Robert Stein, MD; and the Pfizer Global Health Fellows who have served with HVO at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India. These fellows are: Mary Racho, MS; Jacqueline Atallah, DESS; Roy Gomez, MSc, MBA; Mark Tibbetts, MS; Anja Guntermann, PhD; Solveig Haupt, MBA; Rathna Iyer, MS; Frank Lobeck, PharmD; Puthucode Rajamani, MS; Tammy Evans, PharmD; Malin Gylvik, MS; Dinesh Modh, MS; Terra Robles, PharmD; and Tsuneo Tsubaki, PharmD, PhD. The combined service of all of these volunteers is in excess of 11 years at HVO's program sites!
Many of these honorees have also served in leadership positions for HVO overseeing the development of new programs, monitoring the progress of active programs, identifying educational resources for sites, and serving as mentors to their colleagues overseas.
"Winston Churchill remarked, 'We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give' and these honorees are a testament to that thought," stated Julia Plotnick, MPH, RN, FAAN, HVO Board Chair. "These dedicated volunteers have certainly had an impact on improving the health and well-being of so many others, thanks to their commitment to global health care."
The World Health Organization's Global Health Workforce Alliance reports,"Health workers are the heart and soul of health systems. And yet, the world is faced with a chronic shortage - an estimated 4.2 million health workers are needed to bridge the gap, with 1.5 million needed in Africa alone. The critical shortage is recognized as one of the most fundamental constraints to achieving progress on health and reaching health and development goals." In a sobering corollary, they estimate that one billion people in the world will never see a health worker in their lives.
The efforts of HVO's Golden Apple Award recipients are an integral part of HVO's response to the global health workforce shortage. By highlighting the achievements and contributions of the Golden Apple Award recipients, HVO fosters an awareness of global health issues, especially the human resource shortage, which serves as a serious constraint to the delivery of health care around the world.
World Health Day is celebrated annually by the World Health Organization and the international community. Since 1950, it has been held each year on April 7th and focuses on a relevant global health issue. This year's theme is "Aging and Health: Good health adds life to years" which will emphasize that healthy living can lead to a full and productive life in later years. For more information on World Health Day 2012, visit (http://www.who.int/world-health-day/en/).
A private, non-profit organization, HVO was founded in 1986 to improve global health through education. HVO designs and implements clinical and didactic education programs in child health, primary care, trauma and rehabilitation, essential surgical care, oral health, blood disorders and cancer, infectious disease, nursing education, and wound management. In more than 25 resource-poor countries, HVO volunteers train, mentor, and provide critical professional support to health care providers who care for the neediest populations in the most difficult of circumstances. For more information about volunteering, visit the HVO web site (www.hvousa.org).
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