December 5, 2023- In recognition of International Volunteer Day 2023, leading global medical technology company, BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) celebrates 18 years of its employee-centered volunteer service program which serves to expand access and address challenges of health equity in remote, under-resourced regions around the world. In 2023, the company partnered with Project HOPE and Heart to Heart International to execute two service trips to Kosovo and North Macedonia, and Eswatini.
BD partnered with global humanitarian organization Project HOPE to deploy BD volunteers from eight countries to Kosovo and North Macedonia to train more than 600 health care professionals in specialized areas of perinatal and neonatal care. While onsite, BD volunteers worked with nurses and doctors to improve vascular access technique, implement infection prevention measures, improve neonatal respiratory care, and enhance digital systems for patient data collection.
BD also partnered with Heart to Heart International to enable training and education of approximately 100 nurses in Eswatini on non-communicable diseases (NCD). While on-site, nurses were trained to combat high rates of common NCDs, such as asthma and diabetes, which often go undiagnosed due to lack of resources. Additional training topics included infection prevention and women’s health.