My Nonprofit Reviews

I participated as an intern in Chinacal's heart screening program in 2012.

I found the internship extremely satisfying. We spent almost 3 weeks in small villages in rural Yunnan. A great bunch of people. Lots of hard work. Lots to learn. It was seriously an eye opener - not just to learn about heart disease, but also to visit these remote regions and see what life was like for people living there.

I found the team to be hard-working and extremely focussed on the welfare of those children that we found. Dr Detrano and his team are extremely dedicated, and the work they do is simply heroic. The children would have no recourse to the resources that Chinacal makes available.

We were also able to meet with some children who had been through the process, and get feedback from them. It was amazing to see how genuinely appreciative they were.

One minor criticism was that I thought the internship did not really push students to learn as much as they could. It was more a case of learning how to auscultate, and then being left to do it. So great practice, but it would have been nice to have a stronger focus on the educational side of things. I appreciate that the charity is about help the sick, not about specifically providing education. However, given the expense and commitment made by interns, it is something I believe could be improved.

However, all in all, I believe Chinacal really does a great job and is well worth supporting. They are there, on the ground, providing assistance to people who really need it.

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