Dear Friends,
I want to share with you
an article written by one of our Ob-Gyn volunteers, Dr. Leslee Jaeger. She had been leading surgical mission trips since 2006 but realized that the benefits of such trips were limited. They provide care for individual patients but often upset the dynamics of the local health care system. When she volunteered with HVO, she recognized that the goal of teaching her colleagues the skills and information they have requested puts the power back in their hands and gives them knowledge for the future. Her concept of “less doing, more teaching” sums up HVO’s mission very succinctly.
All too often, when faced with a problem, it is easy to step in and just handle it yourself, but the preferable, long-term solution is to teach someone how to solve it for themself. Volunteers frequently tell me after their assignment, that they felt they gained so much more than they gave.
That is one of the wonders of volunteering; learning works both ways. Implicit in teaching is the idea of listening, and it is through listening that we can come to understand the challenges, joys, values, and dreams of those with whom we work.
Thank you to our many volunteers who have done just that – listened and worked patiently alongside their colleagues to teach and mentor them so that they are equipped for the future. Thank you also to all who contributed on Giving Tuesday to help make our work possible!
Best wishes to everyone for a relaxing, peaceful holiday season. May it be a time of less doing and more listening!
Sincerely,
Nancy
Nancy A. Kelly
Executive Director
