THET places a premium on the value that volunteer placements bring to host institutions and countries as well as to the individual volunteers involved. At their heart, such placements must be of value in developing the skills and expertise of staff at the host facilities.
We are committed to supporting sustainable input from UK Health Partnerships to health systems strengthening and capacity development in Zambia. To support this aim, in 2018, THET conducted a Volunteer Placement Feasibility Study in Zambia which outlined the global health volunteering landscape in Zambia and formulated recommendations around placement design and delivery in the country.
Based on the information collected from the study, as well as from the desire for overseas volunteers expressed by Zambian partners on the ground, THET developed a pilot project for volunteer placements in 2019 in which two paediatricians were placed in facilities on the outskirts of Lusaka.
This pilot is continuing in 2020 and will this year include volunteer bursaries of up to £10,000 each.
These bursaries are available to existing Health Partnerships, that have been previously funded by THET, working on the capacity development of the health workforce in Zambia to support volunteers for between 3 and 6 months.