Medical Mission Trip to Vietnam

My name is Kevin Cabrera and I am a first-generation, first-year medical student at Midwestern University. This May, as part of DOcare International at Midwestern (a club on campus committed to bringing healthcare to underserved communities), I will be traveling to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on a three week medical mission trip with 25 classmates. We will be volunteering at Cho Ray Hospital, a large hospital in Ho Chi Minh City serving a large population to help improve healthcare delivery. The hospital is severely understaffed with limited resources, to the point where some patients have to share beds. I am hoping to volunteer in the emergency department (department assignments will be assigned in a few weeks). Furthermore, we will also be traveling to Can Tho, a rural area of Vietnam to set up free mobile medical clinics to improve healthcare access and delivery to this community. We are hoping to see over 200 patients during the mobile clinics alone! Often times, patients are unable to seek medical care strictly because of distance from a healthcare center. These medical clinics will hope to bring healthcare to the patients. This three week trip will not just be an opportunity to serve patients abroad, but it will be a crash course in cultural competency. 


This trip to Vietnam will help improve my clinical skills, bedside manner, and expose me to the Vietnamese culture, language, and religious backgrounds. I am excited to learn about how these factors affect healthcare delivery and learn about their perceptions of medicine. While I realize that this trip will not make me the perfect healthcare provider when interacting with Vietnamese or Asian patients, I hope that some of this exposure will help me better understand my patients so that I can provide the best care possible. 



To make this trip possible, I am trying to raise $1800. This money will be used to cover the cost of airfare, visa, accommodation/food, medical supplies, medications, and goodie bags filled with food, clothes, and personal care items during clinics for our patients. Any donations would be greatly appreciated. 



I have dreamed about being a physician since I was 16. I have taken several medical missions in the past to Nicaragua, Honduras, and Panama and have developed a passion for international medicine. Having volunteered in some of the most impoverished regions of Latin America and seeing the need for Hispanic, bilingual healthcare doctors, I have made a commitment to myself and future patients to continue my tradition of international healthcare service, regardless of my specialty. As of now, I hope to be an ER doctor who is capable of compassionately treating patients from all different backgrounds, races, religions, and languages. I want to improve healthcare access and delivery, especially in underserved communities. This requires a desire to understand the patient beyond their medical complaints.


In June, I will reach out to my donors for contact information to send an update and thank you letter about the trip and the patients served. 

Thank you so much in advanced for partnering with me and my classmates. Please let me know if you would like any more information regarding this trip.

Kevin Cabrera,
Midwestern University - Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine.