MDF Instruments Crafting Wellness - August 21, 2026
Building Lasting Healthcare
U-VOL Foundation, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria
What happens when a medical mission ends? For U-VOL Foundation, the answer is at the heart of the work. For more than a decade, U-VOL Foundation has worked to address healthcare disparities by building relationships with communities, healthcare professionals, and organizations around the world. What began as a grassroots effort has grown into a global organization centered on medical outreach, health education, clean water and sanitation, women’s empowerment, and sustainable healthcare initiatives.
Crafting Wellness with U-VOL Foundation
U-VOL is preparing to return to Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria, with a goal that extends beyond the patients its team will treat. The upcoming medical mission is designed to meet immediate healthcare needs while strengthening the people and systems that will continue providing care long after the mission is over.
Returning to Benue State
In July 2026, U‑VOL Foundation returned to Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria, with a 28-memberteam of healthcare professionals and volunteers from the United States and across Nigeria.
Working in partnership with RCN Medical Center and local healthcare professionals, the team provided free healthcare services to more than 1,000 patients. Services included medical consultations, health screenings and laboratory testing, women’s health and pediatric care, health education, counseling, and access to essential medications and supplies.
The mission also extended beyond the primary outreach site to reach internally displaced families facing significant barriers to healthcare.
At the Mega Internally Displaced Persons Camp, U‑VOL’s ValueHer Initiative conducted a focused maternal-health outreach for 38 pregnant women. Participants received antenatal care, health screenings, obstetric evaluations, ultrasound assessments, health education, medications, oral rehydration supplies, and essential maternal-care items.
For many of the women served, displacement, financial hardship, transportation limitations, and shortages of healthcare resources can make even routine maternal care difficult to access.
U-VOL Foundation, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria
Knowledge That Stays Behind
U‑VOL’s work is designed not only to deliver care, but also to strengthen the capacity of healthcare professionals already serving their communities.
Through the ValueHer Initiative, U‑VOL trained 12 nurses and midwives in essential newborncare during the July mission. The practical training was designed to strengthen clinicians’ preparedness to recognize complications, respond to newborn emergencies, and provide evidence-informed care during the critical period surrounding birth.
ValueHer is U‑VOL Foundation’s nurse-led maternal and newborn health workforce-strengthening initiative. The program combines clinical education, simulation-based learning, locally supported training, essential maternal-care resources, and ongoing collaboration withnurses, midwives, physicians, and healthcare facilities.
“A successful mission is not measured only by the number of patients seen,” said Dr. Faith Adole, Founder and CEO of U‑VOL Foundation. “It is also measured by what remains—the knowledge strengthened, the healthcare professionals equipped, and the local partnerships positioned to continue improving care long after we leave.”
By investing in local healthcare professionals, U‑VOL helps each training experience reach far beyond a single classroom. A nurse or midwife who strengthens their newborn-care skills can apply that knowledge across countless future births, share it with colleagues, and help build greater readiness within an entire facility.
Building Health Beyond the Clinic
U-VOL's work recognizes the many factors that influence whether individuals and communities can stay healthy in the first place. Its programs extend into health education, clean water and sanitation, preventive health, and women's empowerment.
Through health education, communities receive practical information about prevention, nutrition, hygiene, maternal health, and chronic disease. U-VOL's clean water and sanitation initiatives address another fundamental part of community health by improving access to safe water, sanitation infrastructure, and hygiene education.
Their ValueHer initiative places additional focus on women and maternal health, including education, maternal care, support for rural clinics, and training for nurses and midwives.
U-VOL Foundation, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria
A Partnership Built Over Time
MDF Instruments is proud to have supported U-VOL Foundation through Crafting Wellness for several years. Our relationship with U-VOL has previously taken us to this same region of Nigeria. During an earlier medical mission in Benue State, MDF Instruments provided stethoscopes and sphygmomanometers that U-VOL's healthcare teams used while caring for patients in underserved communities.
Read the story from U-VOL's earlier Benue State medical mission.
Today, we're honored to continue following the work of an organization that shares a belief at the center of Crafting Wellness: meaningful change happens when people work together.
Medical instruments can help a healthcare professional listen, assess, measure, and make informed decisions. But their greatest impact comes from the hands they're placed in— the nurses, physicians, midwives, volunteers, and local healthcare professionals who turn those tools into care.
U-VOL Foundation, Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria
Wellness as a Commitment
Our Crafting Wellness initiative is a core expression of what we believe: that health is a fundamental right, that the people and animals who need care most are often the ones hardest to reach, and that a company with resources has a responsibility to use them. Across more than 807 missions in 73+ countries, MDF has donated over 45,000 instruments to organizations working on the front lines of global health.
How You Can Help
U-VOL Foundation offers several ways to become part of its work. Supporters can volunteer on a medical mission, make a donation, start a fundraiser or help spread awareness about the communities and healthcare needs U-VOL serves.
• Donations help support programs ranging from medical outreach and health education to clean water initiatives, maternal health programs, and community engagement.
• Healthcare professionals and others interested in serving can also explore opportunities to volunteer and contribute their skills to U-VOL's work.
• Learn more about starting a fundraiser for U-VOL.
• Visit U-VOL Foundation to learn more about its programs, upcoming missions, volunteer opportunities, and ways to give.
Because the most meaningful missions aren't only about the care delivered today. They're about helping make better care possible tomorrow.
And if your organization is running a medical mission and in need of medical instruments such as stethoscopes, sphygmomanometers and reflex hammers, visit our Crafting Wellness donation request page to learn how MDF Instruments can help equip your team.
About MDF Instruments: Since 1971, MDF Instruments has handcrafted stethoscopes, sphygmomanometers, and reflex hammers used by healthcare professionals in over 73 countries. Our Crafting Wellness program donates medical instruments to missions serving underserved communities worldwide.
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