Our new site is located at projectworldhealth.org

History

Project World Health is a unique program developed by the Family Practice Student Organization at the University Of South Florida College Of Medicine. The program involves educating medical students in international medical issues through service and promoting awareness of other medical systems and health issues of other countries.

Founded as the brainchild of Sigrid Johnson in the late eighties, Project World Health is a program led by medical students at the University of South Florida. Each year, our team of medical students, physicians, and nurses travels to an international location in desperate need of healthcare with the objective of setting up multiple temporary health clinics. At these clinics, we meet the needs of the local community by providing patient care, health education, and preventative medicine. Our services are invaluable to these communities where access to basic healthcare is severely limited.

In addition to improving community health in other parts of the world, the medical knowledge and clinical experience we gain through this program benefit our own local communities where access to medical care and preventative health education still remain limited.

Over the past several years, our group has established ties in Jarabacoa, a region in the mountains of the Dominican Republic. With the invaluable assistance of local volunteers and clinic, children and adults in the surrounding rural and urban areas attend our clinics in large numbers. We are able to see between 2,500 and 3,000 individuals over the course of the week and provide these people with the only health care they may receive for the year.

Spring Mission Trips

Each Spring, we will travel to the Jarabacoa region of the Dominican Republic to offer our services. Once we arrive, we will be divided into three groups and travel to areas of extreme poverty, where we will be able to examine patients, make diagnoses, perform minor procedures, prescribe and fill prescriptions, and distribute hygiene products, toiletries, and toys. We always strive to improve the resources brought with us to the people of the Dominican Republic. Last year, we were able to increase the number of volunteers to 50, which enabled us to establish more clinics each day and led to our ability to see more patients in the day. This year, our goals include, but are not limited to:

• Enable travel for 50 volunteers, including physicians, nurses, and medical students.
• Collect a sufficient amount of medication to provide to patients, if necessary.
• Provide each patient and their family members with vitamins and tools of basic hygiene
• Educate the community about public health issues, including hygiene and women's health
• Work to provide continuous, long term solutions to chronic healthcare problems