Medical Students Trying to Volunteer in Vietnam !

Dear family and friends,

In August, Agnese and I, would love to go to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, to participate in a medical volunteering program.

Agnese and I are medical students, studying in Milan, and we came to this platform to ask for your help in order to achieve our (big) dream.

For as much as our academic career is full of joys, being in medical school also entails a substantial financial burden. Leaving aside the university fees, that itself is a considerable sum, being in medical school entails having mandatory classes every day of the week, for almost the entirety of the “working day” so that we are left with very little time to have a proper side job, alongside our studies. Both, Agnese and I, are tutors and we help younger kids with their school homework. We try to work as much as we can outside of the university curricular hours but, unfortunately, this is still not enough to get us to Vietnam.. that’s why we need your help !

We chose to volunteer in Vietnam because, although its healthcare is improving in comparison to other South East Asian countries, this country still faces some crucial issues such as infant malnutrition, poverty and the impossibility to access clean water in many rural areas.

During the volunteering program - with the organisation IVI (Involvement Volunteers International) - we will be working in a local government operated hospital in Ho Chi Minh, serving various communities within the city. We will be assisting the local staff in a range of different departments, according to where we are going to be needed the most and to where we feel more comfortable working. The hospital offers various departments including, amongst others, a children’s ward, an operating theatre and an emergency room.

On top of helping the local community of Ho Chi Minh, we know this experience will help us to develop both in a professional and in a personal way. In fact, we will have the opportunity to gain a more international perspective on medical care and practises that will, for sure, help us in our future medical career and, finally, by observing a wide range of clinical practices we will gain medical expertise that will make us better medical students and, soon, better doctors.

Thank you for sticking with us till the end and reading this paragraph! Any sum would really be appreciated to help us pay for our flight and accommodation. Hope you’ll see how valuable this project is :)

(for more infos https://www.volunteering.org.au/projects/vietnam-2/medical-internship-vietnam/)