Project HOPE Medical Volunteers Join U.S. Navy for Three-Month Humanitarian Mission to Southeast Asia and the Pacific

Volunteer health professionals from Project HOPE, the international health education and humanitarian aid organization, have joined Pacific Partnership 2015, a humanitarian mission and training exercise led by the United States Navy to help underserved communities in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam. Traveling aboard the USNS Mercy, a U.S. Navy hospital ship, the volunteers will contribute to the mission from early June through late September.

In partnership with U.S. Navy health professionals and other partners participating in Pacific Partnership 2015, the Project HOPE medical volunteers will train and mentor local health care professionals, provide medical subject matter expertise and contribute to public health events at sites in the four countries.

“More than ten years after our first joint humanitarian mission with the U.S. Navy following the Indian Ocean tsunami, our partnership remains strong,” said Andrea Dunne-Sosa, Project HOPE’s Director of Volunteer Programs. “The USNS Mercy and the resources of the U.S. Navy offer a fantastic platform for our medical volunteers to provide health education, training and care to communities in need, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to participate in this eleventh Pacific Partnership mission.”

The Project HOPE volunteers will provide a mix of educational exchanges and experiential side-by-side mentoring to local health care professionals in their individual areas of expertise at five locations: Labasa and Suba, Fiji; Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; Roxas City, the Philippines; and Da Nang, Vietnam. The participating volunteers include an anesthesiologist, pediatric and community health nurses, a pediatrician and a pharmacist.

“My time volunteering with Project HOPE on Pacific Partnership missions has been amazing and life-changing,” said Rose Wilson, a pediatric nurse from Melbourne, Australia who is volunteering with Project HOPE for the third consecutive year on a Pacific Partnership mission. “I am thrilled to have another opportunity to help.”

Pacific Partnership 2015 will be Project HOPE’s 37^th humanitarian mission in partnership with the United States Department of Defense (DOD) and eleventh consecutive year supporting a DOD mission in this region since 2005. Since 2005 Project HOPE volunteers have treated more than 820,000 patients and provided training to more than 240,000 health professionals while contributing to DOD missions.

About Project HOPE

Founded in 1958, Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is dedicated to providing lasting solutions to health problems with the mission of helping people to help themselves. Identifiable to many by the SS HOPE, the world’s first peacetime hospital ship, Project HOPE now provides medical training and health education, and conducts humanitarian assistance programs in more than 30 countries.  Visit our website, www.projecthope.org and follow us on Twitter @projecthopeorg.