Today I am heading to Kigali, Rwanda, where extra than 400 leading world lecturers, policymakers, and healthcare experts will obtain on the Pan-African Surgical Conference to tackle a predominant world health declare: bringing earn proper of entry to to entire surgical care nearer to sufferers’ homes.
This well-known gathering has me reflecting on a outing I took with my husband, plastic surgeon Bill Magee, extra than 40 years ago to the Philippines to help kids in want of lifestyles-altering surgeries. We dreamed of the utilization of our healthcare skills to elevate contemporary smiles to kids who wished cleft lip and palate surgeries. We operated on 40 kids but had to flip away 300 extra. The need turned into once overwhelming—no longer upright for cleft care, but all surgical procedures in the Philippines and dozens of different countries worldwide.
We additionally realized that in a number of areas, there turned into once an absence of expert physicians, nurses, tools, and infrastructure, no longer upright for cleft care but for precise surgeries of every sort. What started with a itsy-bitsy bit one with a cleft condition led us to a community, which confirmed us the necessity for a motion. That moment sparked Operation Smile, which turned into once founded on the conclusion that must you uncover a necessity, you’re taking action toward addressing that want.
Today, now we receive helped over 400,000 sufferers worldwide with surgical care, while supporting thousands extra who got free entire care services. What started in a village in the Philippines has develop into a world group that works completely in 37 countries.
However the necessity is peaceable so expansive. Worldwide over 5 billion other folks—extra than two-thirds of the sector’s population—lack earn proper of entry to to precise, cheap surgical treatment.
Unswerving substitute occurs when care is native. For that reason now we receive evolved our design to focal level on practising and equipping in-nation surgeons and medical teams to elevate lifestyles-saving procedures in their communities.
We work intently with native medical leaders, health ministries, universities, accrediting institutions, NGOs, and international organizations. We listen to our in-nation experts, increase them, and learn from them to drive affect.
In Africa we feature in 12 countries, working with top surgical and anesthesiology institutions to earn a sustainable personnel. Our work in Africa started in Kenya in 1987, and in 2025, we’re expanding to Tanzania. Our key companions—COSECSA, CANECSA, the American Heart Association, and the World Federation Society of Anesthesia—help us educate and equip Africa’s next generation of surgeons and anesthesiologists.
In Rwanda, a nation of 13 million, there were upright two plastic surgeons when our work there started. Families looking for cleft surgical treatment traveled a full lot of miles—handiest to be turned away. To substitute this, we partnered with the Rwandan govt, introducing a hub-and-spoke model that trains health workers regionally. Today, Rwanda is scaling this model nationwide, and we’re proud to increase this effort alongside the Rwanda Surgical Society, the College of Rwanda, and the Rwandan Ministry of Health.
Our affect is real: from two plastic surgeons to virtually two dozen, and from one nation to a continent-huge motion. Across Africa, 55 universities and institutions are practising the subsequent generation of surgeons, decentralizing care, and cutting charges for sufferers.
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This work is extra than surgical treatment—it is miles a tool substitute that will future-proof earn proper of entry to to surgical treatment. By strengthening native skills, cutting back reliance on out-of-nation medical increase, and equipping governments with real-time health knowledge, we’re rising a sustainable future for surgical care in Africa.
On the Pan-African Surgical Conference in Kigali, world experts will approach together to push this agenda forward. Handiest by bringing precise, reliable surgical treatment nearer to home will we elevate hope, receive a protracted-lasting affect, and be particular no affected person is left in the encourage of.
Kathy Magee is the co-founder, president, and CEO of Operation Smile and a registered nurse.
