Our values and who we are

We are so glad you have chosen to volunteer with Open Heart International – you’ve made a great choice. For over 30 years, with help from volunteers like you, we’ve travelled the world facilitating surgical best practice to help some of the most disadvantaged people on the planet. We are really proud of our volunteer’s track record of providing outstanding surgical outcomes and of improving the capacity of the clinicians in the countries in which we work.

By joining our team, you are showing that you value the same things we do. But let’s touch on a few things that will be helpful to you on your journey as a volunteer, and that are important to Open Heart International.

Development Best Practice

At Open Heart International, we say: “Save One, Save Many”. This means our project visits are more than just about saving lives today – our volunteers teach and train alongside local health partners, invest in supporting health systems, and strengthen clinical capacity for tomorrow.

Good development practice is when clinical volunteers like you demonstrate best practice when working alongside our local partners in the countries we visit. By doing this, we help our local health partners save many lives long after each project visit ends.

Getting you ready to fly

When volunteering with Open Heart International, we want you to know that you are in safe hands. We make it a priority to ensure that your experience is an enjoyable and rewarding journey from start to finish. We also want to make volunteering as easy as possible for you.

Building and Maintaining Trust

Open Heart International is an organisation that people trust. Patients and their families trust us to provide high-quality surgery and care. The organisations we partner with trust us to facilitate surgical best practice and to help them achieve their goals. Volunteers trust us to provide a safe and rewarding volunteer experience. This trust and Open Heart International’s global reputation is the result of each team member’s dedication and their individual commitment to professionalism.

Keeping Children Safe

At Open Heart International, we take protection and safeguarding of children seriously. You will encounter people from all walks of life on your upcoming visit, but children patients will probably tug at our hearts the most.

 

Staff Health, Occupational Exposure and Packing Logistics

Open Heart International is committed to keeping its volunteers safe; however, incidents can still occur while travelling such as occupational hazards and needle stick injuries. It is also important to know your vaccination status and keep it up to date. Packing is an essential part of our project visits. We can all do our part by ensuring we pack the boxes the same way that you received them.