THE PROBLEM-

In East Africa 80% of the population live in rural areas while the majority of surgical specialists are in urban centres.  

East African countries fall far behind the WHO standards for recommended number of surgical specialists to meet a population's needs.  In addition, the majority of people who require surgical services, or medical services of any kind, are in rural areas.  This means it is difficult, or even impossible, for the majority of patients to obtain surgical care. The treatment available for patients in rural areas is limited and often substandard.  

Global Surgery is a relatively new field, gaining significant traction in 2015 with the publication of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery report. Global surgery is a multidisciplinary field that recognizes that surgery is an essential component of healthcare and aims to improve access to safe, affordable, and quality surgical care for all people, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

Unfortunately, despite considerable effort, resources, and good intentions, a significant portion of the global population still lacks access to basic surgical care resulting in preventable deaths and disabilities. 

Short-term missions or projects lacking long-term vision and local capacity building foster dependency and fail to create sustainable solutions, while top-down approaches that don’t consider the specific needs and cultural contexts of communities often result in ineffective or inappropriate interventions.

Upasuaji Africa is partnering with East African medical professionals working in both rural and urban centres. We are developing surgical skills for students and surgeons, importing technology and surgical equipment needed by the local surgeons to benefit their patient population. We are collaborating with international surgical teams and providers to improve the surgical service delivery in East Africa and economically empower the local surgeons.

In addition our patient advocacy program works with the most severe surgical cases who have either been unable to obtain treatment or are in need of extensive surgery.