BAHT members have travelled overseas for charity work and teaching for many years. This has usually been organised by the individuals in cooperation with known orthopaedic and plastic hand surgeons.
BSSH now has an Overseas committee formed to build upon their previous work and are working in collaboration with BFIRST (British Foundation for International Reconstructive Surgery and Training). Acknowledging the importance of hand therapy in these missions, BAHT were invited to provide a representative for the Overseas committee. The committee has a chair and committee members (consultants, trainees and hand therapist) who work with BSSH, BFIRST and BAHT to use the resources of all organisations ‘to further local education and training in developing a portfolio of projects that aim to produce sustainable benefits.’
BSSH and BFIRST support the travel and accommodation costs of participants. BAHT has a charitable bursary available to members.
Large numbers of BAHT members have already volunteered for these projects. To give a flavour of the work being done we propose to publish a therapy report from each visit starting with the ones below:
- Bangladesh
- Sierra Leone
- Malawi
- Nepal
A number of presentations have been used by our volunteers and they are happy for these to be accessible to BAHT members and used as long as the source is acknowledged and can be found below: