Dr. Art Levit, (left) a PINCC volunteer, supervises doctors during an examination in Jalapa, Nicaragua.

“We go to give training and equipment and establish a sustainable program that will continue to give this service after we’re gone. You can’t learn this in a few days. I didn’t learn it in a few days," she says. "I learned it in a few years as a gynecologist-resident. So it takes time and experience and proctoring. We go back every six months until the groups are well trained, confident and competent.”

Expanding the program

Nurse practitioner Cheryl Brown is getting final instructions from PINCC staff before leaving for Uganda with Taylor. Like most team members, Brown is a volunteer, who has paid her own way to Latin America for medical site visits. This will be her third trip with PINCC and her first to Africa.

“Many of us, as volunteers, are returnees," Brown says. "It’s so inspirational to be able to see how effective the technique is and how enthusiastic the trainees are about learning the technique and then employing it themselves when we’re not there.”

Since its first visit to Honduras in 2005, PINCC has expanded its program to seven countries. Taylor and her teams have set up 30 medical sites which screen and treat thousands of women annually.

Six more sites will open in 2012. PINCC volunteers now travel six times a year - to Africa, Latin America, and India - treating an average of 2,500 women per visit.