Problem

Some parts of Africa are so remote that it would take many days by car to reach the district hospitals. These hospitals often have only one doctor to serve 250,000 people, and no specialists. AMREF flies specialists to remote hospitals in East Africa to treat patients and to train local doctors and nurses. They leave behind not just healthy patients but also local doctors and nurses with more knowledge and skill.

The Gift

John Wachira is an AMREF surgeon and urologist. He flys across Africa to train doctors and to carry out life-changing operations. He spends more than 40 weeks each year working in isolated rural hospitals. Other specialists, including orthopaedic surgeons, general surgeons, reconstructive surgeons, urologists, anesthetists, and laboratory experts also volunteer with AMREF’s Flying Doctors to visit rural hospitals two or three weeks each year. $1,000 will support a specialist to fly to a remote hospital for a week. During the visit he will treat more than 40 patients, undertake 10 to 20 complicated operations, and train the local health workers and doctors to undertake some of these tasks in the future. About 60 percent of patients are children.