The organizational links below provide direct access to various groups working in underserved communities both in the US and internationally. Please visit these sites to find out more about the important work going on around the world and consider getting involved as a volunteer provider.
Do you want to learn more about what it means to work in community health? Are you interested in building your skills? Many of the organizations listed provide trainings for potential volunteers in order to gain the skills needed to ensure success for you and the community you work with.
+ Acupuncture Groups
Acupuncture Ambassadors
www.acupunctureambassadors.org/
Our mission is to organize sustainable Acupuncture treatment clinics and training programs worldwide to care for refugees, victims of violence, war, international conflict and the poor.
Acupuncture Relief Project
www.acupuncturereliefproject.org/
The Acupuncture Relief Project is a free community acupuncture clinic that travels to countries that have been impacted by poverty, conflict or disaster. Currently our primary clinic project is located in Chapagoan, Nepal and villages in the surrounding area.
Acupuncture Residencies
www.nesa.edu/continuing_education
NESA offers an acupuncture residency designed to be an immersion experience in integrative medicine. The clinical setting is Boston Medical Center which is the largest safety-net hospital in New England. About 70% of BMC patients come from under-served populations—including low-income families, elders, people with disabilities, minorities and immigrants. Acupuncture residents work with NESA faculty to provide care in the Department of Family Medicine outpatient clinic.
Acupuncture Volunteer
We are committed to providing free health care to those in need; domestically and internationally. We have donated our time and resources in India, Guatemala, Honduras, Vietnam, America and hopefully in the future additional countries. I am an licensed acupuncturist and certified herbalist that lives and works in Oregon, USA.
Acupuncturists Without Borders
www.acuwithoutborders.org/index.html
Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB) provides immediate disaster relief and recovery to communities that are in crisis resulting from disaster or human conflict. AWB is committed to creating alliances with local community based organizations and treating all who have been affected – survivors, first responders, emergency personnel and other care providers.
Barefoot Acupuncturists
www.barefootacupuncturists.com/en/the-project.html
Barefoot Acupuncturists is a non-profit organisation with no political or religious affiliation. Our only objective is to offer acupuncture treatments and training to less privileged populations in order to relieve them from illness and support them in having greater autonomy in healthcare.
Global Alternative Healthcare Project
www.youcanchangetheworldnow.com
Global Alternative Healthcare Project’s mission is to deliver free alternative healthcare to populations in the developing world with no access to healthcare.
Global Clinic
As an organization founded by Acupuncturists, we hope to spread acupuncture awareness and familiarity, while attempting to integrate acupuncture with other healthcare practices- conventional and non-conventional alike.
Global Natural Health Alliance
A non-profit org. driven to provide free natural health care options to the native people of impoverished communities in developing nations. The intent of GNHA is to establish international, permanent natural health clinics, deploy circuit-based mobile natural health clinics, exchange knowledge with local traditional healers, and to unite natural health professionals around the world.
Guatemala Acupuncture and Medical Aid
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Acupuncture Project (JETAP)
www.japanesetsunamiaid.blogspot.com/2011/03/what-we-aim-to-do.html
A project that is being set up to offer free Acupuncture treatment to survivors of the recent Tsunami in North East Japan (Tohoku). We are aiming to assist in providing complementary healthcare, which may be seen as unimportant in such emergency situations. We think it is very important now and in the coming months, helping the physical and emotional recovery of the survivors of the Tsunami.
The Laura Louie Hope Foundation
www.Lauralouiehopefoundation.org
The Laura Louie Hope Foundation, a Canadian charitable organization, has been created to provide cost-effective health-care to low income individuals (adults and children) in developing countries through community-based grassroots projects. Treatment will be aimed at but not exclusive to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). The Foundation works with local doctors and health-care practitioners to provide a holistic program of treatment, education and lifestyle enhancement.
Mindful Medicine Worldwide
www.mindfulmedicineworldwide.org/Default.aspx?m=Home&p=&s=Main
Mindful Medicine Worldwide seeks to bring long-term integrative health care to people of developing areas, domestically and internationally, by establishing and operating integrative health care clinics. Our professional volunteer practitioners provide medical services and healthcare education to our patients.
Moxafrica
Moxafrica is a charitable organisation set up in 2008 in the UK to investigate the use of moxibustion therapy for the treatment of tuberculosis, particularly drug-resistant TB, in resource poor environments.
One World Health Project
One World Health Project is a non-profit organization established to provide wellness education and acupuncture to under served communities. Founded in 2009 by dedicated Oriental Medical students who united around the vision of creating sustainable outreach programs both locally and globally. They have joined forces to raise awareness about wellness practices and funds to support impactful, sustainable outreach programs.
PanAfrican Acupuncture Project
www.panafricanacupuncture.org/
The PanAfrican Acupuncture Project trains healthcare workers in Africa to use simple and effective acupuncture techniques that enable them to treat the devastating and debilitating symptoms associated with HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB.
Projects Abroad Pro
This voluntary acupuncture project provides treatment for sufferers of Cerebral Palsy and Polio in Kathmandu, Nepal. We work with care centre organisations that look to help disadvantaged communities with treatments they may not normally receive. This project would be perfect for anyone qualified considering voluntary work abroad or professional acupuncturists on a career break. Tibetan Refugee Healthcare Project
Alternative Resources Unlimited
www.alternativeresourcesunlimited.org
Alternative Resources Unlimited, Inc. II is a 501c3 non-profit, non-political organization, which has existed since 1989, under the directorship of Marsha Woolf. Operating almost exclusively through donations and volunteer staff, Alternative resources is an umbrella organization whose primary projects include the Tibetan Refugee Health Care Project, Menla Tibetan Medical Institute, Menla Research Inititative and the Haitian Emergency Alternative Resources Team (H.E.A.R.T.).
We work with care centre organisations that look to help disadvantaged communities with treatments they may not normally receive. This project would be perfect for anyone qualified considering voluntary work abroad or professional acupuncturists on a career break.
World Medicine
World Medicine is a charitable organisation which provides complementary and alternative healthcare to people around the world suffering the effects of trauma, disaster and poverty.
+ Naturopathic Doctor (ND) Groups
FIMAFRICA – Foundation for Integrated Medicine in Africa
FIMAFRICA – Foundation for Integrated Medicine in Africa, is a registered Canadian charity delivering integrated medical services to remote and impoverished communities living in Northern Kenya. We provide mobile clinical services to deliver integrated medicine, using homeopathic medicine, naturopathic medicine, diet, clinical nutrition, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, herbal medicine and other integrative holistic methods to improve integrated health care in these remote areas for communities that receive minimal medical care. We treat people regardless of race, religion, political views or sex.
H.E.L.P. Foundation
H.E.L.P. Foundation’s mission is to provide integrated healthcare services to people living in developing countries, victims of natural disaster, war and civil unrest regardless of race, religion or creed. HELP Foundation designs, develops, and maintains integrated medical clinics and teams capable of delivering quality medical care to respond immediately with medical relief, and continue its support as long as there is a need.
Natural Doctors International
Our vision is to see natural medicine in general and naturopathic medicine specifically implemented into global health policy.Since 2005, our naturopathic clinic on the Island of Ometepe, Nicaragua has provided over 13,000 patients free naturopathic medical care by volunteer naturopathic physicians and nearly $450,000 USD of medicines.
Naturopaths Without Borders
To provide naturopathic health care to impoverished communities, while empowering those communities through education, supporting growth and cultivating sustainable resources
Naturopathic Medicine for Global Health
Naturopathic Medicine For Global health seeks to promote Naturopathic Medicine as a feasible and cost effective means of healthcare in developing nations.To accomplish this goal NMGH will provide access for those who have limited or no access to health care.
ND Global Network
ND Global Network is a resource for naturopathic physicians and allied heath practitioners interested in doing volunteer/humanitarian work or study abroad.
+ Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Groups
Alternative Healthcare Access Campaign (AHAC)
Purpose is to increase the accessibility of quality alternative healthcare for homeless and low-income people in the Seattle area by bringing free acupuncture, naturopathic medicine and massage care on site.
Emergency Response Massage International
Emergency Response Massage International, Inc. (ERMI) is a 501(c)3 non-profit, volunteer organization of massage therapists that provide stress-reducing chair massage to Emergency Responders following a disaster/critical incident. ERMI team members are licensed/certified in their state, have liability insurance, and all Officers, State Coordinators, District Leaders are National Incident Management System (NIMS) certified. ERMI was formed out of the need for a governing body to standardize training and become a clearing house for the numerous independent emergency response massage teams starting up world wide. ERMI works closely with the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, FEMA, State and Local Emergency Management Agencies.
Homeopaths Without Borders
www.homeopathswithoutborders-na.org/
Homeopaths Without Borders, is a nonprofit 501c3 humanitarian organization. Their mission is to provide humanitarian aid, homeopathic treatment and education by serving as partners with communities in need.
MamaBaby Haiti
MamaBaby Haiti is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and well being of mothers and babies. Our mission is to lower the maternal, fetal, and neonatal mortality rate in Haiti. MamaBaby Haiti is formed by a group of midwives and naturopathic doctors who serve women and families out of their birthing center and clinic in Haiti. They provide free prenatal, birth, postpartum, and pediatric care, in addition to education and other life saving services.
One Health Organization
Australia’s first humanitarian aid agency for holistic health care. To collaborate in the creation of wellness focused community health programs for the poor and disadvantaged. Holistic Primary Health Care (HPHC) is OHO’s road map to global community health. It emphasizes sustainable, non invasive, community driven initiatives in consultation with a multi disciplinary team of health care professionals.
+ Western Medical Groups
Newcastle Gateshead Medical Volunteers
The Newcastle/Gateshead Medical Volunteers Charity is a collective group of healthcare professionals from the North East of England comprising orthopedic surgeons, nursing staff, physiotherapists and anesthetists among others.
The charity arranges regular visits to the Kurdistan region of Iraq to provide needed clinical expertise to local residents including organization of outpatient clinics, performing surgical operations and arranging basic teaching and training courses for medical students and Kurdish health-care professionals.
Aloha Medical Mission
Aloha Medical Mission, a secular, nonprofit 501(c)(3) volunteer organization based in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, provides free health care to underserved people in the Pacific, Asia and Hawai‘i. It was founded in 1983 by Drs. Ramon Sy and Ernesto Espaldon under its parent organization, the Philippine Medical Association. That first year, a team of physicians and nurses traveled to a small Philippines town and performed free cleft-lip surgery on children whose families were too poor to afford the operation.
Green Cross Academy of Traumatology
The Green Cross Academy of Traumatology was initially organized to serve a need in Oklahoma City following the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. In 2004, GCP merged with Green Cross Foundation and emerged as the Green Cross Academy of Traumatology. We are an international, humanitarian assistance organization, non-profit corporation comprised of trained traumatologists and compassion fatigue service providers. Most are licensed mental health professionals, all are oriented to helping people in crisis following traumatic events.
International Medical Relief
www.internationalmedicalrelief.org/
International Medical Relief offers short term medical mission trips for volunteer doctors, dentists, medical and non-medical professionals. We provide medical relief in areas where health care is limited or difficult to obtain and in disaster areas.
Medical Aid Rural Africa (MARA)
www.maracharityfoundation.org/
Medical Aid Rural Africa (MARA) has the goal of ridding rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa of preventable suffering and death due to diseases. Our principal scope is medical: orthodox care and medication to such neglected and deprived areas.
Medical Relief & Education International
Medical Relief & Education International (MRE International) is a comprehensive health education organization that partners medical relief with health education in vulnerable communities in developing countries.
Missoula Medical Aid
Missoula Medical Aid works with rural and impoverished communities in Honduras as they seek to improve health and access to health care.
Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps
Remote Area Medical (RAM) is a major nonprofit provider of free mobile clinics. Our mission is to prevent pain and alleviate suffering by providing free, quality healthcare to those in need. We do this by delivering free dental, vision, and medical services to underserved and uninsured individuals. RAM’s Corps of more than 135,000 volunteers–licensed dental, vision, medical, and veterinary professionals–have treated more than 785,000 individuals and 68,000 animals, delivering $135 million worth of free care.
About our List
The organizations are primarily complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) organizations. We have also provided links to western medical organizations that utilize both medical and non-medical volunteers. Please note that CIC does not maintain any formal affiliation nor officially endorses the linked organizations. If you are interested in working with a group, please contact them directly for further information and assistance.
Are you working with a group who provides direct care in an underserved community or region and want to be listed? Or, do you want to update your organization’s information? Contact us — we want to hear from you!