Saturday 5 December is International Volunteer Day, a day to celebrate the worldwide efforts, values, and commitment of all volunteers and to raise awareness of the important role volunteers play in responding to challenges facing the global community.
This has been a difficult year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has physically separated RACS’ specialist volunteers from the local medical teams they have been working alongside for many years. However, it has been inspiring to observe their strong commitment to continuing the invaluable training, mentoring and support they provide to RACS Global Health partners across the Asia-Pacific region.
While some teams travelled between January and March 2020, travel ceased completely at the end of March. However, our volunteers have led and participated in regular Zoom webinars, to continue their vital support to local hospital teams through virtual rather than face-to-face contact, while travel was not possible.
We would like to thank all our specialist medical volunteers for their ongoing support and commitment to RACS’ Global Health programs and partners during this very challenging period. RACS volunteers make a lasting and very positive impact on the lives of individual patients and clinicians but also on health workforces and health systems across the Asia-Pacific region.
