OMI International Partners Series: Olga Havel Foundation

Jan 11, 2021

The Open Medical Institute is a global education initiative that fosters brain gain and minimizes brain drain. It collaborates with institutions in Latin and South America, the Middle East and Africa and Central and Eastern Europe. These partners promote the OMI Programs to local physicians and provide administrative, financial and logistical support to physicians upon selection for an OMI Program.

The new OMI blog series is currently featuring the OMI partner institutions worldwide.

This time, allow us to introduce the Olga Havel Foundation, our partner in Czech Republic.

The Olga Havel Foundation was established in 1990 by Olga Havel, who dedicated her life to creating conditions for the emergence of civil society. The mission and main purpose of the foundation is to support people who, due to their health or social status, have difficulties integrating into society or taking care of themselves. In 2020, the foundation not only celebrated its 30th anniversary, but also its many achievements with programs regarding healthcare, social policy, educational issues and humanitarian projects.

For more than 20 years, the Open Medical Institute and the Olga Havel Foundation have maintained a successful collaboration, enabling highly qualified physicians from the Czech Republic to participate in seminars in various fields of medicine. Since the beginning of the collaboration, more than 1,000 Czech fellows have been selected to attend OMI Seminars in Salzburg and share their knowledge and experience.

“I would recommend the Salzburg seminars to everybody! Everything was perfect – the arrangements, topics, lecturers, setting, catering and the overall atmosphere! I learned a lot, including: how to deliver a quality lecture, how rehabilitation is done abroad, and what other people consider to be important topics in the field. The contact with the lecturers and other participants was very enriching. Thank you, OHF, for the opportunity.”

Dr. Zuzana Stiborová (OMI fellow)

The Olga Havel Foundation acknowledged its excellent partnership with the Open Medical Institute by awarding Dr. Wolfgang Aulitzky, the OMI’s Medical Director, with The Olga Havel Foundation Award in 2010. To mark its 30th anniversary, the foundation issued a 2021 calendar and we would like to give our thanks to Mgr. Monika Granja, Director of the Olga Havel Foundation, for sending us a copy along with a thank-you letter. The appreciation is mutual, and we are looking forward to continuing the exceptional collaboration!

Mgr. Monika Granja

Mgr. Monika Granja

Director, Olga Havel Foundation

“2020 was another year that made us feel proud and honored to be a part of your mission, which you were able to continue despite all challenges and obstacles this year brought. You were forced to adapt to a very uncertain situation, but you still made international medical education possible by changing in-person seminars to hybrid seminars and creating highly interactive OMInars as a new concept. Physicians from the Czech Republic have been expressing their gratitude for being able to participate in medical seminars during this challenging year, whether they were in the form of hybrid seminars in Salzburg or OMInars.”