Global Volunteering Opportunities

Each year, APSA members seek volunteer opportunites in poor or disadvantaged countries.

To assist in linking available pediatric surgeons with areas of need, the Global Paediatric Surgery Network (GPSN) was founded 2010*.  The GPSN is an organization that serves as a clearinghouse for volunteer work performed by pediatric surgeons around the world.  By consulting the GPSN, pediatric surgeons who are interested in volunteering can find work by any of the following means: 

• they can join planned trips advertised on the GPSN website;
• they can work independently or in groups, by contacting others who are currently working in an area or have worked there in the recent past, thereby building upon previous work that has been done;
• or they can directly contact pediatric surgeons in areas of limited resources who post their needs on the GPSN website. 

In addition there are resources not only for the practicing pediatric surgeons in low- and middle-income countries, but for the volunteer pediatric surgeon as well.

To learn more about volunteering oversears, visit the GPSN at http://globalpaediatricsurgery.org/.

*Developed by APSA member and pediatric surgeon Marilyn Butler, MD, of Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.