We are now well into May so I hope you are considering your contribution for this year’s “Doctor’s Day in May” effort. Your Colleagues have contributed over $55,000 so far so I am hoping you will join them. Remember you donation goes a very long way when applied to targeted programmes in the developing world.
Please recall the key concepts.
- This is “ virtual volunteering “ in that you are funding an expansion of medical care in the developing world rather than you actually going there and working in a clinic with all that would entail. So it’s as if you took a month or so from your practice and to travel to the developing world and endured the following;
– inconvenience to you, your patients and your family
– direct cost in actually getting to Sub- Saharan Africa
– opportunity cost in lost income
– potential significant danger involved
- The “avatar” you are funding has much more of the particular skills and the language required to do the work needed in that particular environment. They have been and are being trained to do the jobs most required.
- By contributing to medical wages in Africa, you are supporting their economy with all the multiplier effects implied.
- Medical wages, particularly for greatly required nursing services ,are a fraction of the cost in Africa or New Guinea compared to those in Australia. In Australia, nurses typically earn about $40 per hour. In PNG, it’s $1.50 per hour. In Sub- Saharan Africa often even less.
This means your contribution goes a very long way in providing health care… which is after all why we chose medicine as a profession and what we try to do effectively on a daily basis.
Let’s multiply our impact as doctors on this planet.
Thanks for considering your contribution.