About Us Operation International UK, OI-UK- is a subsidiary of Operation International Ltd. OI-UK is incorporated in England and registered with the Charities Commission of England and Wales. Operational International UK is managed by registered trustees on a voluntary basis. Funds raised by Operation International UK will be exclusively used to support our missions, with 95 - 99% of funds raised going directly to host hospitals. Operation International UK has an affiliate relationship with Operation International Ltd. The chair of Operation International UK is a member of the Board of Directors of Operation International Ltd.
Our History Operation International is a secular, non-political, humanitarian organization founded in 1996 in the United States. The first UK-US collaboration launched its maiden mission to Ghana in 2019 performing 143 operations in just one week. We have now formed a UK chapter of Operation International to mobilize UK based volunteers for future missions.
Our Team Our amazing team of volunteers are committed to our goal of making life saving surgery available to our most underserved communities. We rely 100% on donations of money, time, and clinical skills. We take our convictions and turn them into action. Think you would be a good fit? See our 'Get Involved' section for more information!
Our Mission Our mission is to change and save as many lives as possible by providing free surgical care to people in need, regardless of gender, cultural, ethnic, political or religious affiliations, in countries around the world. To ensure that our efforts impact underserved communities for years to come, we also offer education and training to local health care workers during each of our missions.
How we Operate As part of Operation International’s commitment to the long-term sustainability of our free medical program, and to keep administrative costs to a minimum, we offer our doctors and volunteers the opportunity to be part owners of individual Chapters of our organization. Each Chapter is made up of medical volunteers of certain areas of expertise within a geographic location and is responsible for raising funds, planning, and managing logistics of the missions, thus eliminating the need for many of the ancillary needs with their associated cost.
This model enables us to ensure donors’ contributions directly support our medical missions and projects. Additionally, it enables our teams to have direct involvement with the destination, timing, and other components of each mission and project. Operation International’s unique model is built on the concept of collective ownership and self-governing for volunteers. This pattern of “horizontal growth” has resulted in the creation of a network of partners who share resources, expertise, contacts, and depend on each other for support. The UK chapter is the first chapter to be incorporated outside of the United States and we hope to grow this chapter to undertake missions around the world for years to come.