The following is a directory of organizations that offer volunteer opportunities at home and abroad. They are listed in alphabetical order; if you want to go directly to the listing for a particular agency, just click below on the letter with which that organization's name begins. For example, click on "M" for "Mercy Ships."

Aloha Medical Mission
1314 South King St., Suite 503
Honolulu, HI 96814
808/593-9696

Since 1983, Aloha Medical Mission has dispatched physicians to Vietnam, the Philippines, and other countries in Asia to provide care to the poor. This year, volunteers will travel to Laos and the Philippines. The group has a critical need for ophthalmologists, plastic surgeons, and anesthesiologists; however, all specialties are welcome. Many AMM doctors are Filipino-Americans and/or residents of Hawaii.

American Jewish World Service
45 West 36th St.
New York, NY 10018
800/889-7146

Founded in 1985, AJWS sends medical and nonmedical volunteers to support humanitarian projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Physicians do relief work, as well as offering training and clinical programs to improve local health care. One current initiative involves working with community groups in Africa to provide AIDS education and patient care. The time commitment is one month to one year.

American Medical Student Association
1902 Association Dr.
Reston, VA 20191
800/227-5728

The nation’s oldest student-run organization, AMSA matches up medical students with physician mentors who give advice about picking a residency or bring students on rounds. Other volunteer roles for full-fledged M.D.s include “adopting” an AMSA chapter or serving in the group’s speakers bureau. The group is oriented toward primary care, but specialists are welcome.

American Refugee Committee
430 Oak Grove St., Suite 204
Minneapolis, MN 55403
612/872-7060

Each year, ARC assists about one million people uprooted by war, providing primary care, medical training, and public health services. ARC is currently at work in the former Yugoslavia, Guinea, Liberia, Rwanda, Sudan, and Thailand. Volunteers are self-funded and may work from one month to a year.

Archdiocesan Health Care Network for Catholic Charities
924 G St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
202/772-4332

This network of more than 300 specialty care providers in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area seeks physicians to donate office time to homeless and uninsured patients.

Ayudamos, Inc.
1 Marine Plaza, Suite 210
North Bergen, NJ 07047
201/662-9111

Ayudamos is Spanish for “we help,” and this group operates in South America, Nepal, Cambodia, and Serbia. In addition to offering primary care, volunteers use the latest computers, cell phones, and satellite transmitters to improve rural populations’ access to health care. Physicians with technological savvy are preferred.

Baptist Medical Missions International
Box 30910
Little Rock, AR 72260
501/455-4977

BMMI’s medical missions of one or two weeks go to a wide range of locations, including Cape Verde, Guatemala, Bolivia, Haiti, Honduras, the Philippines, Ukraine, and West Africa. They welcome volunteers specializing in primary care, family practice, ob-gyn, ophthalmology, orthopedics, ENT, and surgery.

Bridges to Community, Inc.
Box 35
Scarborough, NY 10510
914/923-2200

Bridges to Community operates medical and construction projects in Nicaragua. Primary care physicians, nurses, and medical students are needed to serve from eight days to two weeks in urban and rural clinics.

Canvasback Missions, Inc.
940 Adams St., Suite R
Benicia, CA 94510
800/793-7215

A group of “nondenomenational Christians,” Canvasback serves the tropical north Pacific. The group sends doctors and dentists on two-week stints to hospitals in Micronesia and the Marshall Islands, and is currently raising funds to refurbish two ships that ordinarily ferry volunteers to the more remote atolls. Most missions last two weeks. Physicians specializing in ophthalmology, orthopedics, urology, ENT, and
ob-gyn are particularly welcome.

CardioStart International, Inc.
512 White Oak Ave.
Brandon, FL 33510
813/689-3289

CardioStart International provides heart surgery at no cost to people in need throughout the world. The organization’s volunteers also work to establish cardiac centers in areas with inadequate facilities, including the Caribbean, eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Central America. The group is in particular need of cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, and anesthesiologists, as well as ICU and OR equipment donations. Missions typically last two weeks.

Catholic Medical Mission Board, Inc.
10 West 17th St.
New York, NY 10011
800/678-5659

Primary care physicians serve at Catholic hospitals and outpatient clinics in Africa, Asia, and Latin America from two weeks to two years (preferably at least a year). The organization arranges room, board, and medical evacuation insurance for all volunteers, plus airfare, health insurance, and stipends for long-term workers.

CBInternational
1501 West Mineral Ave.
Littleton, CO 80120
800/487-4224, ext. 2520

Ob-gyns, ophthalmologists, public health specialists, surgeons, and midwives volunteer at hospitals in Indonesia, Ivory Coast, and Pakistan for one month to two or more years. All fund their own work or receive support from friends, family, and churches.

Children’s HeartLink
5075 Arcadia Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55436
952/928-4860, ext. 19

Since 1969 CHL has worked to prevent and treat heart disease in children. The organization needs experienced cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, anesthesiologists, intensive care physicians, and public health specialists who can serve from one to three weeks in Central America, East Africa, China, India, Kenya, Israel, and Ukraine.

Concern America
Box 1790
Santa Ana, CA 92702
800/266-2376

Concern America volunteers are asked for a two-year commitment. They train local health workers in both preventive and curative medicine, and address sanitation and vaccination issues. Similar projects operate in Latin America and Mozambique. Volunteers must speak Spanish or Portuguese or be willing to learn. Primary care physicians are especially welcome.

DePauw University
Winter Term in Service
Hartman Center
500 East Seminary St.
Greencastle, IN 46135
765/658-4619

Volunteer doctors, not necessarily associated with DePauw, assist local physicians at primary care clinics in the Caribbean, Africa, and Latin America. They also oversee the public health initiatives of DePauw’s medical student volunteers.

DOCARE International, Inc.
430 King Ave.
East Dundee, IL 60118
847/836-8022

For nearly four decades, this organization has been offering medical outreach to isolated, underserved people in South and Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Volunteers work in local clinics and also venture into
villages, where they provide care in schoolrooms and other makeshift
clinics. All specialties are needed. The
period of service is typically two weeks.

Doctors of the World, U.S.A., Inc.
375 West Broadway, fourth floor
New York, NY 10012
212/226-9890, ext. 238

Except in emergency efforts, DOW requests that volunteers serve for at least one month in foreign posts. Ongoing projects include providing maternal and infant health care in Kosovo, staffing a hospital in Chiapas, Mexico, and fighting TB in South Africa. DOW also runs human rights clinics in the United States, providing examinations and medical affidavits for survivors of torture seeking political asylum. The group does not accept medical students.

Doctors on call for service, Inc.
Box 24597
St. Simons Island, GA 31522
912/634-0065

Doctors on Call for Service links Christian physicians in the United States with their African counterparts for training and continuing medical education. In one current initiative, American volunteers will teach on a short-term basis at family medicine residency sites in Congo. Tours of duty range from two weeks to two years.

Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins sans Frontières (MSF)
6 East 39th St., eighth floor
New York, NY 10016
212/679-6800

Recipient of the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize, MSF has helped victims of war, epidemic, and natural disaster in more than 80 countries. Primary care assignments last from six months to a year; however, members of quick-response teams may work as briefly as six weeks. All first-timers, with the exception of surgeons and anesthesiologists, must complete half a year of service. Physicians in primary care, infectious diseases, and emergency medicine are needed.

Esperança,Inc.
1911 West Earll Dr.
Phoenix, AZ 85015
602/252-7772, ext. 101

Esperança is recruiting orthopedic, plastic, urology, and general surgery teams for two-week missions to assist the poor children of Bolivia and Belize. Esperança pays physician volunteers’ room, board, and emergency assistance coverage.

Fellowship of Associates of Medical Evangelism (FAME)
Box 34800
Indianapolis, IN 46234
317/272-5937

FAME seeks physicians in all specialties to serve in Africa, Central America, eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia. Assignments range from two weeks to two years. The organization expects volunteers to be “committed Christians.”

Flying Doctors of America
1235 North Decatur Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30306
404/815-7044

Founded in 1990 to launch short-term medical missions by private plane, FDOA has evolved into an organization that serves areas that are difficult to reach without jet travel—mostly poor, rural regions of developing countries. This year the organization is mounting missions to China and Tibet.

Flying Physicians Association
Box 677427
Orlando, FL 32867
407/359-1423

Physicians with an interest in aviation (if not their own planes) volunteer in disaster areas across the nation, transport patients and donated organs all over the United States, and treat patients at a clinic near Montego Bay, Jamaica. The time commitment is open-ended.

Fresh Start Surgical Gifts
351 Santa Fe Dr., Suite 210
Encinitas, CA 92024
888/551-1003

This organization brings poor children, both American and foreign, to California, Tennessee, or other locations in the United States for reconstructive operations on physical deformities. Volunteer surgeons serve for a weekend at a time, and programs are scheduled every eight weeks. The organization is looking for plastic surgeons to donate their skills or start sister programs.

Global Volunteers
375 East Little Canada Rd.
St. Paul, MN 55117
800/487-1074

Global Volunteers enlists doctors and laypeople to serve one- to three-week stints in Asia, the South Pacific, Africa, India, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe. The group focuses on children without families: In India, volunteers do medical outreach at an orphanage; in Quito, Ecuador, GV provides basic health care, rehabilitative services, and medically supervised day care for disabled children. GV’s lay volunteers also teach English, repair buildings, and
do gardening.

Health Volunteer Consulting Network, Inc.
Box 7114
Hicksville, NY 11802
718/658-1879

This organization provides medical care in the Caribbean, primarily Jamaica. Volunteers of all specialties serve on a one-week mission that also includes a brief medical conference.

Health Volunteers Overseas
Box 65157
Washington, D.C. 20035
202/296-0928

Last year HVO sent more than 350 health care professionals to train local personnel in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Specialists in internal medicine, pediatrics, and anesthesia as well as orthopedic, oral, and maxillofacial surgery can go on assignments of two to four weeks; in some cases volunteers can bring their families.

Heart to Heart International
401 South Clairborne Rd., Suite 302
Olathe, KS 66062
405/787-5200, ext. 104

Heart to Heart sends pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to communities in need, enlisting volunteers to offer drug updates and medical education to local doctors. Missions last about ten days. In the former Soviet Union, the teams focus on family practice. In China, pediatricians and neonatologists perform neonatal resuscitation training, and ophthalmologists perform cataract surgery. Upcoming missions will visit South Africa.

Helping Hands Health Education
948 Pearl St.
Boulder, CO 80302
303/449-4279

Helping Hands, founded by Nepali organizer Narayan Shrestha, seeks physicians in all specialties who are willing to serve two weeks or more in Nepal or Namibia. Monthlong trips include two weeks of clinical work and two weeks on an organized mountain trek in Nepal or on safari in Namibia. Volunteers must be in excellent
physical condition.

Helps International
15301 Dallas Pkwy., Suite 200
Addison, TX 75001
800/414-3577

Helps International, founded in 1983, assists indigenous peoples in the Guatemalan highlands. During 12-day medical missions undertaken January through May, its teams treat as many as 10,000 patients in local and U.S.-government-built hospitals. About 60 volunteers serve on each team, typically a mix of general practitioners, anesthesiologists, and general, plastic, and eye surgeons, as well as dentists, pharmacists, and nurses.

Himalayan HealthCare, Inc.
Box 737, Planetarium Station
New York, NY 10024
212/829-8691

A few times each spring and fall, HHC volunteers trek into areas of Nepal accessible only by foot. Physicians spend six days working alongside Nepali health care professionals in the region’s remote clinics, which have no electricity or plumbing. The group needs primary care physicians and specialists in excellent physical condition.

International Health Service
Box 16149
St. Louis Park, MN 55416
952/920-0433

IHS was founded in the early 1980s to provide basic medical and dental care to the rural poor of Honduras. Education is an important part of its mission—from teaching children basic hygiene to training local physicians in surgical techniques. Every year the February Project sends ten teams of physicians and dentists to clinics and hospitals in remote areas for two weeks.

International Hospital Relief Foundation, Inc.
6630 Biscayne Blvd.
Miami, FL 33138
954/986-7050

IHRF organizes medical projects in developing countries. Upcoming missions will visit Africa and the Caribbean. Specialties needed include primary care, ob-gyn, ophthalmology, and general and plastic surgery. The term of service is from one to two weeks.

International Mission Board
Southern Baptist Convention
Box 6767
Richmond, VA 23230
800/888-8657

This organization invites physicians in primary care and public health to serve as volunteers in more than 100 countries. Short-term commitments last from one week to four months.

International Relief Teams
3547 Camino del Rio South, Suite C
San Diego, CA 92108
619/284-7979

IRT sends supplies and relief teams to aid victims of disaster, poverty, and neglect around the globe. Volunteer teams instruct local health care professionals in specialized surgery and maternal and newborn care, and run health education projects. IRT is currently operating in Armenia, Fiji, Latvia, Lithuania, and Mexico.

Interplast, Inc.
300-B Pioneer Way
Mountain View, CA 94041
650/962-0123

Interplast’s teams of physicians and nurses provide free reconstructive facial surgery to needy children in developing nations. Volunteers work closely with the hosting medical personnel, instructing them in advanced techniques. Most of the organization’s 40 annual surgical trips require only a two-week commitment. Countries in which Interplast is currently active include Ecuador, Honduras, Peru, the Philippines, Nepal, and Vietnam. The group needs plastic surgeons, pediatric anesthesiologists, and pediatricians.

Lalmba Association
7685 Quartz St.
Arvada, CO 80007
303/420-1810

Lalmba, whose Ethiopian name means “place of hope,” operates a hospital and an orphanage in Ethiopia and three clinics in Kenya. The emphasis is on public health and preventive medicine. All specialties are welcome. The minimum commitment is one year.

Liga International
1464 North Fitzgerald, Hangar 2
Rialto, CA 92376
909/875-6300

For more than 60 years, this organization has been providing medical, dental, and eye care to the poor in rural Mexico. Members, primarily physicians from California, travel by private plane to reach remote clinics, where they work closely with Mexican medical professionals. There are nine missions a year, and all specialties are needed.

Loma Linda University
International Affairs
11060 Anderson St.
Magan Hall, Suite 105
Loma Linda, CA 92350
909/558-4420

These programs rely on physicians in all specialties for service in clinics and hospitals worldwide. Time commitments vary.

Medical Benevolence Foundation
Box 671226
Houston, TX 77267
800/675-9250

MBF partners with the Presbyterian Church (USA) to place doctors in all specialties on missions to Africa, Asia, and Haiti. The time commitment is open-ended. Primary care physicians and orthopedists are especially needed.

Medical Ministry International
Box 1339
Allen, TX 75013
972/437-1995

MMI volunteers serve on brief
missions to more than 20 countries in Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, the former Soviet Union, and Asia. In addition to public health educators, specialties needed include pediatrics, urology, dermatology, ob-gyn, primary care, family practice, anesthesiology, and general surgery. Spouses and children over the age of 12 are welcome.

Medicine international
52 Laidley St.
San Francisco, CA 94131
415/285-8581

Medicine International physicians provide support for expeditions, lead wilderness medicine education programs, and serve on humanitarian relief projects in developing countries. Volunteers also respond to disasters, from earthquakes to refugee crises.

Mercy Ships
Box 2020
Garden Valley, TX 75771
800/424-7447

This nondenominational Christian group operates two ships with surgical theaters on missions to Central America and Africa. The ships dock in major ports, then dispatch groups of doctors to villages where they run primary care clinics. Physicians specializing in family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, and anesthesiology as well as ophthalmic, orthopedic, and maxillofacial surgery all serve from two weeks to a year. Long-term volunteers may serve as spouse teams.

Mexican Medical Ministries
251 Landis Ave.
Chula Vista, CA 91910
619/420-9750

MMM is a Christian service organization operating a dozen clinics in Baja California, Mexico. Volunteers, who may participate for a weekend or longer, work alongside Mexican physicians. The group emphasizes teaching and specialty care, and particularly needs plastic surgeons, ENTs, ophthalmologists, and urologists.

MIMA Foundation
Box 7133
Jupiter, FL 33468

MIMA runs one- to two-week medical outreach projects in Bolivia. The name MIMA comes from the Spanish word mimar, which means “to care for tenderly.” The group treats the underserved; it also involves local health care providers to ensure continuity of care. All specialties are needed.

Minnesota International Health Volunteers
122 West Franklin Ave., Suite 210
Minneapolis, MN 55404
612/871-3759

Minnesota International’s physician, nurse, and public health volunteers work for six months to a year on large-scale public health projects in Uganda, training and counseling local health care providers on maternal and pediatric health. Volunteers do not provide clinical care.

Mission Doctors Association
3424 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90010
626/285-8868

Founded in 1959, Mission Doctors Association places Catholic physicians and their families in Mission hospitals and clinics in Africa and Guatemala. Volunteers serving on one- to three-month assignments must attend a preparatory weekend seminar. Long-term volunteers spend three years in Africa, teaching and offering medical care, and they are required to participate in a four-month residential formation program. All specialties are needed.

Northwest Medical Teams International
Box 10
Portland, OR 97207
800/959-4325

Founded in 1979, NMT provides clinical support and disaster relief around the world. Short-term posts of one to three weeks are available in Brazil, El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras, Romania, and Uzbekistan. The organization welcomes all health care professionals, especially those available on short notice.

Operation Lifeline International Jewish Renaissance Foundation
149 Kearny Ave.
Perth Amboy, NJ 08861
732/324-2114

OLI, a program of the Jewish Renaissance Foundation, sends volunteer physicians to underserved, primarily Jewish communities in eastern Europe, the Caribbean, the former Soviet Union, and India. Most missions last one to two weeks. OLI particularly needs pediatricians, geriatric specialists, and doctors who speak the language of their host country. The group runs volunteer disaster response teams and a domestic program for uninsured patients in New Jersey.

Orbis International
520 Eighth Ave., 11th floor
New York, NY 10018
800/672-4787 or 540/261-7737

Orbis volunteers do eye operations and train physicians in developing countries. Volunteers work in local hospitals and perform surgery on a DC-10 with a fully equipped operating room. Upcoming destinations include China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Ethiopia.

Physicians for Human Rights
100 Boylston St., Suite 702
Boston, MA 02116
617/695-0041, ext. 216

PHR was a co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its involvement in the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines, and its members continue to investigate human rights abuses worldwide, using forensics and medical ethics as political tools. In the United States, PHR volunteers examine refugees seeking political asylum for signs of torture.

Physicians for Peace
229 West Bute St., Suite 200
Norfolk, VA 23510
757/625-7569

Physicians for Peace promotes international cooperation and health through medical outreach and education. Among its successes is a clinic for amputee victims in Turkey, now operated entirely by Turkish medical professionals. The group has conducted more than 250 educational missions, usually ranging from ten days to two weeks, in the Middle East, Central America, Africa, eastern Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia.

Project Hope
225 Carter Hall Lane
Millwood, VA 22646
800/544-4673

Project Hope’s volunteer doctors teach the latest techniques to health care practitioners in the developing world. Specialty needs vary. The organization offers assignments lasting from a week to a year, and is currently active in more than two dozen areas around the world.

SIM USA
Box 7900
Charlotte, NC 28241
800/521-6449 or 704/588-4300

This evangelical Christian ministry needs physicians in family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, ob-gyn, and general surgery for service projects in Africa, Asia, and South America. Short-term opportunities last from six weeks to two years. Long-term commitments are also available.

Surfer’s Medical Association
Box 1210
Aptos, CA 95001
831/684-0916

SMA holds medical conferences in some of the world’s best surfing locales. During its annual conference on the Fijian island of Tavarua, the group conducts clinics and gives medical updates on the health problems of surfers to local health care workers.

TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission)
Box 969
Wheaton, IL 60189
800/343-3144

This religious-minded organization sends family practitioners, internists, pediatricians, and surgeons to South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Various specialties are needed; the minimum time commitment is two weeks.

TOMA Foundation
107 R.R. 620 South, no. 21-D
Austin, TX 78734-3999
512/699-8662

In 1997, a malaria epidemic broke out among the Yanomami of the Amazonian rain forest. Luckily for this already endangered tribe, a missionary’s son who had spent his childhood in the jungle happened to be back for a visit. In response, he started TOMA (Tribal Outreach Medical Assistance). Within two years, TOMA had established two antimalaria clinics in the Amazon, and trained locals to run them. On TOMA’s yearly mission, medical volunteers provide basic care, vaccinate children, offer health education, and treat patients for such complaints as tropical parasites and hunting wounds.

United Methodist Church General Board of Global Ministries
Mission Volunteers Office
475 Riverside Dr., Room 1374
New York, NY 10115
212/870-3825

UMC runs medical missions, educational outreach efforts, and construction projects throughout the world. Vol-
unteers undergo preparatory training for stints of two months or more. All specialties are needed.

Vellore Christian Medical College Board (USA), Inc.
475 Riverside Dr., Room 243
New York, NY 10115
212/870-2640

Vellore Christian Medical helps staff a 2,000-bed hospital about 90 miles from Chennai (formerly Madras), India. Physicians in all specialties are welcome to serve for up to six months at the hospital, which offers a relatively relaxed introduction to medicine in the developing world compared with more need-driven missions abroad.

Visions in Action
2710 Ontario Rd., NW
Washington, D.C. 20009
202/625-7402

Visions in Action sends Christian medical and lay volunteers to clinics, hospitals, and public health projects in Latin America and Africa for six months to a year. The organization has a particular need for general medical doctors, nurses, public health educators, AIDS counselors, and medical researchers.

World Gospel Mission
Box 948
Marion, IN 46952
765/664-7331

This interdenominational evangelical group seeks physicians specializing in family practice, internal medicine, ob-gyn, pediatrics, anesthesiology, and surgery to serve on medical missions to Kenya. The minimum time commitment is six months.

World Medical Mission
Box 3000
Boone, NC 28607
828/262-1980

A division of Samaritan’s Purse, World Medical Mission works in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Volunteers practice mainly in hospitals; they also work in clinics and sometimes assist in disaster relief. Stints in Africa and Asia require a minimum commitment of one month.

World Witness Board of Foreign Missions Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
1 Cleveland St., Suite 220
Greenville, SC 29601
864/233-5226

World Witness maintains a 140-bed hospital in Pakistan and volunteer clinics in Mexico. The group also places physicians in eastern Europe. Surgeons are especially needed. The time commitment is open-ended.