As a GMV volunteer you have the extraordinary opportunity to create beneficial change and have a positive impact on people's lives. Even if your engagement is fairly short, it can have a long-term impact and achieve a ripple effect that extends far beyond the immediate beneficiaries of your efforts.

Your role as a GMV volunteer is that of both facilitator and catalyst. GMV encourages you to be creative and entrepreneurial in finding ways to develop capacity and to promote and foster volunteerism for health development - both within and beyond the formal framework of your engagement.

Ultimately, if development is to be effective and sustainable, the people affected by it must take ownership of its processes and drive them forward. Indeed, the MDGs can only be reached if millions of people around the world voluntarily mobilize to achieve them. Your actions as a GMV volunteer can also inspire others to volunteer and to believe that they too can make a contribution towards health care development in Africa

GMV volunteers come from around the world and many more cultural backgrounds, and thanks to this wide variety of perspectives and skill they bring a range of experiences, expectations and approaches. This diversity gives their work a particular dynamism.

GMV volunteers are thus part of a global, cumulative effort that integrates volunteerism as a core contribution to health care development in Africa