Volunteers working on a medical volunteer campaign aid in treating and educating patients, providing basic checkups and treatment to members of the community. Volunteers also help to distribute vitamins and other medication, and deliver health education information appropriate to both children and adults. A week-long Medical Volunteer Campaign involves visiting and working with up to five communities throughout the week and days typically include 4 hours volunteer work per day.

During the week-long campaign, your group will work together with our local team to provide basic health services to populations that may not otherwise have access to regular healthcare services.

OGVO Groups are incredibly beneficial to these communities, as they enable both children and adults to receive basic check-ups, important vitamins and medication and to increasing their understanding of basic health topics.

Volunteers are required to bring their own basic medical supplies, including a white coat, scrubs, disposable rubber (or latex) gloves, antibacterial soap or sanitizer, a stethoscope, and a blood pressure cuff. Advice on further supplies to bring can be provided by the OGVO team once group applied.

OGVO Medical Volunteer Campaigns are open to all volunteers with relevant training or experience in healthcare. Group members can be in early stages of training (pre-med, pre-nursing, pre-dental, pre-health, etc), or can already be in Medical/Nursing school (any year of study). Fully qualified group members are also welcome to participate, however volunteers will always be supervised by local staff regardless of their level of qualification and experience.

The standard OGVO Medical/Healthcare projects (listed under each of our OGVO Program Pages) take place within urban/rural community hospitals/clinics, healthcare centers or assisted-living facilities and can have only 3 to 5 volunteers assisting them at any one time. Clinics and centers are often limited to providing healthcare only to those who arrive at the clinic that day, and volunteers will have a largely observational role within the clinic structure. Groups are still able to participate on these projects (for example, if volunteering for more than 1 week), however groups will be split into smaller teams; volunteering across a few different clinics/hospitals and centers in the local area.

OGVO Medical Volunteer Campaigns, on the other hand, are available for groups of volunteers working together alongside local medical staff. As the groups are closely supervised and guided by local Medical staff, your group members are able to engage in a greater range of hands-on medical work, reaching out to a much higher number of patients per day, as the Campaigns actively travel to the patients’ communities rather than relying on the patients to come to them at the clinics/hospitals.

Volunteers are accompanied by a local medical specialist and/or a local doctor/nurse, all of whom are bilingual. While medical training is not typically provided on OGVO programs, OGVO Groups on the Medical Volunteer Campaign will usually receive an introduction/overview of how to take vitals. This is dependent on the experience and current level of training that group members have.

All OGVO volunteers receive a thorough Program Orientation on the first day of the program, which covers many details about the program overall, the local area, health and safety and the volunteer work.

In each of our program settings, we also have a full team of staff who provide 24/7 assistance and support for our volunteers; both during volunteer work, and during free time. Additionally, OGVO Groups are assigned a staff member from our local team, in addition to medical staff, to help with any questions or concerns during the program.

Can I use this program as part of a college or university placement? 

It is certainly possible to use one of OGVO’s programs as part of your university or college placement. Project staff can sign off any paperwork required by your course tutors. OGVO regularly receives medical, childcare, psychology and nursing placement students at our projects across Ghana and we have ties with some of the leading universities.

If you’re a course tutor and would like further information about how one of OGVO’s programs could meet the placement requirements for your degree course then please contact us directly.