School of Life Course & Population Sciences

Global Volunteering Scheme

King’s Global Health Partnerships recruits hundreds of volunteers from the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and internationally, and connects them with health professionals in Somaliland, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia. During their placements, our volunteers provide teaching and training, mentoring and hands-on support to health workers, and undertake collaborative research.

Through these long-term partnerships, we promote skills and knowledge exchange, and mutual learning that contribute to building a stronger health workforce and improved quality of healthcare both internationally and back in the UK.

We are always looking for skilled, passionate volunteers to support the health systems in our partner countries. Please get in touch at kghp@kcl.ac.uk to discuss our work, or check out our current opportunities here.

Current Opportunities

Sierra Leone Global Health Fellow (in-country)

We are excited to recruit for the new KGHP Fellowship to support health systems strengthening across Sierra Leone. We are looking for nine senior Medics, Nurses and Midwives to support the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)-funded Saving Lives Phase III programme in Sierra Leone. The programme aims to support the Government of Sierra Leone to deliver on improving maternal, child and reproductive health outcomes in the country.

KGHP will be leading a Clinical Mentorship programme across six districts in Sierra Leone to support Nurses and Midwives with vital lifesaving skills. Over a 12-month period (June 2024-June 2025), each Fellow will support the development of a hospital education team, underpinned by a continued professional development framework. In partnership with the hospital management team, the Fellow will co-create and deliver a Leadership in Education programme. The Fellow will also support clinical mentoring on the wards and a mentorship cascade system, working with smaller, rural community health centres.

Please download the Fellowship Terms of Reference for more information. To apply, please send your CV and cover letter to Aneesah Peersaib, Director of Clinical Strategy: aneesah.peersaib@kcl.ac.uk. Deadline for applications is 1st May 2024. We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis so we encourage you to apply early.

Download Fellowship Terms of Reference

Fracture Care Needs Assessment Volunteer, Democratic Republic of the Congo (remote)

We are looking for volunteer clinicians with experience in trauma care and orthopaedic surgery to carry out a fracture care needs assessment for Kongo Central province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Volunteers will initially support this first phase of work, with possible scope to be involved in subsequent phases of the project, to improve orthopaedic and fracture care in the province. The volunteers will remotely support the team to conduct a literature review of trauma care needs assessments in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and analyse existing data from the Kongo Central province. We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis so we encourage you to apply early. To apply, please register or logon to our volunteer platform: https://kghpvolunteering.kcl.ac.uk/ and complete the online application.

Download Terms of Reference

Sign up to our volunteer platform

Why volunteer?

There is strong evidence that participating in global health work brings real benefit to NHS staff and services, as well as healthcare staff and citizens in our partner countries. Volunteering with King’s Global Health Partnerships provides opportunities to:

Develop skills in leadership and interdisciplinary team-working
Build knowledge and skills in innovation and quality improvement
Broaden clinical and teaching experience and participate in healthcare education
Develop cross-cultural experience and working with diverse communities
Build personal resilience and efficiency, including an enhanced ability to stay calm and make good quality decisions
Experience renewed energy for tackling the challenges in the NHS

Volunteering in Sierra Leone was a life-changing experience which gave me a sharpened sense of what really matters – I’m more discerning about the types of improvement approach that really add value, and more often challenge processes which don’t. I’m also more self-reliant and confident in making decisions using the best evidence available. And I developed greater appreciation of the resources we have in the NHS and renewed determination to make absolute best use of these
Laura Semple, NHS Manager

How does volunteering work?

All volunteer roles are appointed following an application and interview process.

There are three types of engagement which volunteers can choose

1

Remote volunteering, which may involve online teaching and mentoring to health professionals in any of our four partner countries
2

Short trips (1-2 weeks) to Somaliland and Democratic Republic of Congo
3

Longer term placements (6-12 months) in Zambia or Sierra Leone

What are the basic requirements?

Have at least 5 years of experience in your discipline
Have a relevant professional qualification
Be fit and healthy
Have a clear DBS check
Be able to commit to the full duration of your placement / remote mentoring role

We welcome applications from volunteers from all disciplines – clinical and non-clinical. In particular, we are looking for professionals with expertise in the following areas:

Quality Improvement • Trauma Surgery • Emergency Medicine • Nursing • Mental Health • Hospital Management • Hospital Engineering • Infection Prevention Control • Paediatrics • Obstetrics & Gynaecology • Infectious Diseases.

What King's Global Health Partnerships offers?

For short trips, all costs associated with the trip including flights, visa, vaccinations and anti-malarials, local transport, subsistence and accommodation will be covered.

For longer placements, we offer:

Monthly stipend for living expenses
Return flights to partner countries
One return flight between the partner country and the UK for every 6 months that the volunteer is in post, to support travel during annual leave
Multi-entry visa
Residency permit & professional registration (where required)
Vaccinations and anti-malarials
Accommodation in a shared house with other volunteers
Transport to and from the workplace
27 days annual leave plus public holidays.

We also offer access to:

A comprehensive induction programme to King’s Global Health Partnerships (KGHP) as a chance to learn about our ethos and approach as well as essential safety and security briefings for overseas volunteers
High quality support from the dynamic and experienced partnerships team during the period of volunteering
KGHP’s Wellbeing Support Programme, which is provided through an external company called WorkPlace Options. This provides practical information and counselling on a variety of topics. Information can be provided over the phone, online or via email; and counselling is offered at a time convenient to you and at no cost for all those working with KGHP.

Please apply for any volunteering roles via our volunteer platform

All volunteer opportunities are available to view on our volunteer platform. Please sign up or login to the platform to hear about future opportunities.

What our volunteers say

Volunteering with King's Global Health Partnerships (KGHP) provides opportunities for mutual learning and contributes to building NHS volunteers' skills, knowledge and experience, as well as those of healthcare workers in our partner countries. In this Channel 4 News feature KGHP volunteers share their experiences of volunteering during the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone in 2014, and how these lessons helped equip them to deal with the Covid-19 response in the UK.

King's Global Health Partnerships: What do we do?

Learn more about the countries where we work and what we do.

KGHP's partnership model

Learn the ways in which KGHP works and our health partnership model, and how expert volunteers can engage with these projects.