The following is some important information about what to expect at an AMEN clinic.

Time Commitment

When you sign up to volunteer for a day, we base our patient capacities on the number volunteers for the whole day, and with the knowledge that people will take breaks throughout the day and that sometimes things come up in life that must be attended to. But, overall, we anticipate everyone who comes to volunteer will stay for the whole day. Our clinics typically start in the early morning hours and end in the late afternoon or early evening hours. If you can only come for part of the time (half day or less), please let us know so we can plan accordingly. Please check the specific information about set up, take down, and times of clinic operation for the clinic you are participating in. We appreciate your commitment to those in need.

Non-Professional/General Volunteers

Volunteers without relevant health care professional skills will be able to volunteer in several other capacities. There are many jobs at the clinic that most anyone can help with: patient registration, runners to help patients get where they need to go, language translation (if you have language skills to offer), dental sterilization, supply stocking and lay technicians in our vision lab. We ask that you be flexible concerning your work assignment at the clinic. We have many jobs that need to be filled; you might not be able to volunteer for a specific assignment. Although we will do our best to honor location and assignment requests, and will do our absolute best to accommodate any physical restrictions you might have, general volunteers will mostly be assigned duties when they arrive based on our greatest need at the time. We have to get the clinic operations up and running each morning, so things can be very busy. You will find that it is easy to enjoy working in wherever you end up at the clinic. You’ll get to meet new people and make new friends!

Dress

We recommend volunteers wear modest, comfortable attire (scrubs are acceptable). All volunteers are required to wear closed-toe shoes (we suggest shoes you can stand comfortably in for long hours). No tank tops or offensive clothing are permitted.