Conducting international health activities takes so much more than scheduling travel, getting passports and learning about the food and climate of a community in a low resource community.

Here are some resources we have found that can be used to form participants in international activities with true cultural competence beyond passports, place tickets and points of interest.

• Unite for Sight - Certificate in Cultural Competency
  Unite for Sight has a robust Global Health University that includes an online certificate course in cultural competency. The course is publically available and is relevant and applicable for Catholic health care. (There is a $65 fee)
  Access the Certificate in Cultural Competency program

• CHA Video Scenarios to Open Dialogues in Catholic Health Ministry
  These three video scenario videos, each partnered with several videos that offer expert commentary on the scenarios, are important International Outreach educational tools that are meant to open dialogue across U.S. Catholic health care relating to activities including:
  
  
  • Sharing surplus equipment, supplies and medicines with low-income countries
  • Responding to disasters in low-income countries
  • Conducting medical mission trips or immersion experiences in low-income countries
    
    Access the videos and learn more

• International Outreach Video Presentations on Being Neighbor and the Call to Serve
  Two video resources featuring Ron Hamel, PH.D., CHA's retired senior ethicist and Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, Incoming President & Chief Executive Officer; Vice President, Sponsorship and Mission Services, to help your organization consider its international outreach activities, with specific attention to:
  
  
  • Being neighbor – particularly now when scarce resources and unending need make reality very unlike that of the Good Samaritan. Presented by Ron Hamel, Ph.D., retired CHA senior ethicist.
  • How the call to this work is part of a tradition—a tradition that includes the need for cultural competence. Presented by Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM, Incoming President & Chief Executive Officer; Vice President, Sponsorship and Mission Services.
    
    Watch the videos and download accompanying resources

• Global Guides to Customs, Culture and Etiquette
  
  
  • Guides from at Kwintessential
  • Guides from e-Diplomatt
  • Understanding Latin American Culture article
  • Countries and their Cultures website
  • CRS Guide to Working with Volunteers