Unite for Sight has clinical volunteer programs year-round in Africa and Asia:
http://www.uniteforsight.org/intl_volunteer
Volunteers receive hands-on clinical experience while assisting doctors in remote, rural villages. Volunteers learn about international health and eye care, learn clinical skills while working with patients and doctors, and, in one program location, have an opportunity to practice cataract surgery on a goat's eye.
The goal of Unite For Sight and its partner eye clinics and communities is to create eye disease-free communities. Unite For Sights volunteers (local and visiting) work with partner eye clinics to provide eye care in communities without previous access. The eye clinics eye doctors and Unite For Sight volunteers jointly provide community-based screening programs in rural villages. The clinics eye doctors diagnose and treat eye disease in the field, and surgical patients are brought to the eye clinic for surgery. Patients receive free surgery funded by Unite For Sight so that no patient remains blind due to lack of funds. Volunteers immediately see the joy on patients' faces when their sight is restored after years of blindness.
Quotes From Past Volunteers:
During my volunteering experience, I realized that Unite for Sights service is a campaign for the salvation of humanity that allows the light of compassion to shine through each of us. I believe it is this display of altruism and commitment that makes the organizations service so virtuous and treasured by both volunteers and patients. After all, making a difference in the world is not so difficult if only one would care enough to sacrifice a part of oneself in order to change the world for the better. My experience as a Unite for Sight volunteer has inspired me to dedicate my future career to serving underprivileged communities around the world.Chiwing Jessica Qu, Yale University Student, Unite For Sight Volunteer in India 2007
"Without Unite for Sight, I cannot imagine how I could possibly have seen and learned so much as an undergraduate about medicine, other cultures, and my own desire and ability to make a difference in others' lives."--Charlotte Hogan, Georgetown University Student, Unite For Sight Volunteer in India 2006 and Ghana 2005
"I can honestly say that everything I learned in 3 years of medical school paled in comparison to the 3 week experience I had in Accra (Ghana) in October 2007 as part of Unite For Sight. The program provides volunteers with a unique and hands-on involvement being able to help out to the level of your training and comfort. My experience taught me that Ghanaian people are the friendliest people I have interacted with anywhere in the world, that ordinary people involved with Unite For Sight are making extraordinary differences, and that sitting in a classroom receiving a world-class education cannot match real life experiences while volunteering."--Varun Verma, UMDNJ Medical Student, Unite For Sight Volunteer in Accra, Ghana
