What skills could you bring?

If you’re not a doctor, nurse or physio then don’t worry – you probably have skills that would be well used at the Health Centre. There are opportunities to help in the lab, pharmacy, and administration office and there are lots of practical jobs to do if that is your area of expertise.

 
Long term volunteers

If you are interested in long term mission (over 6 months) we would point you towards WEC, the original founders of the Health Centre, who have team members in various places in-country including in the vicinity of Sibanor and who provide excellent training, support and fellowship to long termers. Contact us in the first place for more details.

Long term medical volunteers (doctors and nurses) will need to register with the Gambian Health Authority and then they will be able to work un-supervised in the Health Centre

Short term volunteers
 

For volunteer visits of less than 6 months we have an agreement with the WEC teams in the countries where most volunteers come from that they (WEC) will undertake some of the necessary formalities for us and provide some general pre-visit orientation and we (SHED) will provide some more Sibanor-specific pre-visit orientation training. Once you arrive in The Gambia we will be the primary support to you during your stay, and if you are volunteering for the first time we would aim to ensure that one of the Trustees would be at Sibanor when you arrive to assist you in finding your feet.

 
Short term medical volunteers are able to work under supervision at the Health Centre without being registered with the Gambian Health Authority.  Because of this supervision requirement we are unable to take a lot of volunteers concurrently. However, we are very happy to take short termers, including those undertaking electives, since that is often a stepping-stone for someone to consider longer term mission.

As an alternative to volunteering, you can simply visit the place and someone will take you round and show you the various different aspects of the work there. Do contact us and we can set that up for you.
If you want to know more about the opportunity to volunteer then contact us (via sibanortrek@gmail.com) and we will set up a get-to-know-you video call and discuss the opportunities with you. 
 

Read about what it meant for one of our recent volunteers – a junior doctor - to spend 3 months at Sibanor: https://www.rcpe.ac.uk/impact/ecg-sibanor-health-center-republic-gambia