The Global Volunteer Partnership Enables Volunteer's Return Abroad

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 30, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- The Global Volunteer Partnership, Inc., a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports skills-based volunteering abroad, is pleased to announce that Zachary Tabb of Los Gatos, California, has returned from his three week assignment to Uganda, where he trained community health workers and helped local residents establish a source of clean water. The volunteer assignment was made possible by a grant from The Global Volunteer Partnership, which enabled Tabb, who will be entering Brown University's Alpert Medical School this fall, to participate in an ongoing community health worker training project managed by Omni Med, Inc., a 501 (c)(3) based in Waban, MA that provides health professionals with international volunteer opportunities through innovative, community-based health programs. 

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130730/MN55637)

The grant supporting Tabb's work was the first made by The Global Volunteer Partnership through its new program, "GVP Match."  Through this program, Tabb received a grant to supplement funds he raised from family and friends in order to meet all the costs of his assignment.

Under Omni Med's direction, Tabb worked within Uganda's National Ministry of Health to train community health workers, organized as Village Health Teams (VHT), who serve as the primary providers of preventative and treatment-based health initiatives in rural villages.

"We are pleased to have helped Zac make a lasting, and possibly life-saving difference to some of those who need it most," said Jack Hawkins, founder and president of The Global Volunteer Partnership. "It is our goal to enable more volunteers like Zac to use their skills for solving global problems, and we believe GVP Match has tremendous potential to be significantly scaled up."

"With the support of The Global Volunteer Partnership, I was able to return to Ntenjeru, a village where I previously served as a Peace Corps volunteer," said Tabb.  "In a country where there are only 1 doctor for every 8,300 people, compared to 1 doctor for every 413 people in the US, training health workers can have major, long-term benefits."

Reflecting on his recent experience, Tabb remarked: "'What will I leave behind?' that was a question I had hoped to answer through my experience. Now, I realize that unless one plans to reside in a community permanently, our time is limited wherever we go, making it all the more imperative that we responsibly seek to work with organizations that provide opportunities to make a long-term impact."

(To read more about Tabb's volunteer assignment and its impact, please visit: http://blog.globalvolunteerpartnership.org/)

Omni Med, which has managed similar training programs in other parts of the world such as Belize, Guyana, Kenya and Thailand, has been working with the Ugandan Ministry of Health since 2007 on the implementation of the VHT training program. To date, Omni Med has engaged 54 skilled US volunteers to train and maintain more than 1000 community health workers, while constructing protected water sources that now provide safe, clean drinking water to over 600 households.

"Volunteers like Zac make it possible to overcome global health disparities," Dr. Edward O'Neil, Omni Med's founder and president, commented. "Their work shows that knowledge is the most powerful resource available and can make a tremendous difference in a country like Uganda."

About The Global Volunteer Partnership

The Global Volunteer Partnership, Inc. is a 501 (c)(3) that develops resources to enable skilled American volunteers and US nonprofits and companies to contribute to global development through projects targeting economic growth, education, health, the environment, information technology and agriculture. GVP Match is a new resource for improving the affordability of skills-based volunteering abroad. For more information please visit: www.globalvolunteerpartnership.org.

About Omni Med, Inc.

Omni Med, Inc. is a global health 501 (c)(3) that provides health professionals with service and volunteer opportunities throughout the developing world.  To learn more, please visit: www.omnimed.org.

Media Contact:Ross Lovern, The Global Volunteer Partnership, 9176288450, info@globalvolunteerpartnership.org

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SOURCE The Global Volunteer Partnership