Project HOPE Announces 2018 Volunteer of the Year
Project HOPE names Carolyn G. Kruger as the 2018 Volunteer of the Year
Project HOPE is pleased to announce its top four outstanding volunteers for 2018—three individuals and one corporation. Volunteers with health care and other expertise make immense contributions to Project HOPE’s overall mission by donating their time and skills. Each year, Project HOPE names its Volunteer of the Year honoring those who made the most substantial contributions to the organization during the previous calendar year.
Gold Award – Carolyn Kruger
Nurse. Purcellville, Virginia. Volunteered 1,200 hours in 2018.
Carolyn has a long history with Project HOPE. In the past, she’s worked with Project HOPE as an employee, consultant and volunteer. As a consultant, she assessed and developed a maternal child health program in Sierra Leone. Because she cares so deeply about Project HOPE’s programs and work, she continued to serve in a volunteer capacity. She never completely stops an assignment; rather, she works towards the goal around the clock, going above and beyond her duties to ensure the program’s success.
“I have always respected HOPE’s international engagement and the development of health and education programs. HOPE’s approach to entering each country through consensus building and identification of local counterparts is key to its long-term success and in keeping with international values.”
Carolyn is a health professional with over 30 years of experience in international health facility and community-based program management, capacity building and service delivery. She holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education from St. Louis University in Missouri and a Master of Arts in Nursing from the University of Iowa.
Silver Award – Sheila Cardwell Grisard
Nurse. Social worker. Salt Lake City, Utah. Volunteered 112 hours in 2018.
Sheila volunteered with Project HOPE this year in Guatemala and last year in Puerto Rico. She has been on several previous missions serving as a nurse. She has a deep humanitarian spirit that can be felt through every interaction with those around her. Rather than just completing the basic expectations for a volunteer, Sheila brings a deeply grounded and heartfelt commitment to making a difference that makes her stand out as the brightest among shining stars.
“I have learned that each person brings to the volunteer mission their own set of skills and personality traits, and everyone has something to offer the person in need. Together we form a team that can make a huge difference to the victims in need.”
Bronze Award – Jabnely Muñoz
Physician. Texas. Volunteered 96 hours in 2018.
Jabnely served with Project HOPE in Puerto Rico and Guatemala. A talented, driven and flexible volunteer, Jabnely is always ready to to do whatever she can to help. She deployed to Puerto Rico as a water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) volunteer, even though she is a medical doctor. At that moment, Project HOPE needed volunteers for WASH education and she agreed to take on this role.
“I’m a team worker and that is an advantage to accomplishing great things. Diversity makes us strong.”
In 2018, Jabnely contacted Project HOPE shortly after the Fuego volcano erupted in Guatemala and once again offered her help. Just a few days later, she was on the ground responding with HOPE for the second time in a few months.
Jabnely is an international medical graduate from the Universidad de Montemorelos. She has her medical license from Mexico and is a certified medical assistant by the American Registry of Medical Assistants.
Corporate Volunteer of the Year – The Sextant Foundation
The Sextant Foundation is Project HOPE’s Corporate Partner Volunteer of the Year for 2018.
Project HOPE and The Sextant Foundation volunteers partner to bring hope and health care to communities where health systems have been weakened – and sometimes devastated – by earthquakes (Haiti), typhoons (Philippines) or the HIV epidemic (Dominican Republic). In 2018, Sextant volunteers installed solar power at Bo Hospital in Sierra Leone where HOPE has an active neonatal program.
The non-profit extension of Mazzetti, a global provider of engineering design and technology/IT consulting, the Sextant Foundation offers expertise to improve the environmental, financial and human conditions in low-resourced health centers around the world. Their ability to bolster health-system capacity has benefited HOPE’s beneficiaries in powerful and sustainable ways.
The Sextant Foundation is a U.S.-based 501(c)3 organization founded and supported by Mazzetti, in 2014. Walt Vernon, P.E., LEED A.P., EDAC, is CEO of Mazzetti and is also a seasoned HOPE volunteer and an expert in the research and design of health care facilities.
How you can help
Make a lifesaving gift to support our work now and for the future at projecthope.org/donate.
Are you a health-care or other professional who would like to learn more about volunteering abroad with Project HOPE? Learn more about our volunteer program and join our volunteer roster.
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