The second day of our inaugural East Africa Regional Training (EART16) began in the OR. While a young child who had suffered severe scalding underwent a skin graft, training participants were able to observe a demonstration of the techniques that had been covered in the previous day’s lecture. Surgeons outside of the OR were also able to watch and learn through a live broadcast hosted in another room.
Day 2’s sessions continued with discussions facilitated by our partners at Smile Train on cleft care. Smile Train strongly emphasized the importance of forming interdisciplinary teams for cleft lip care, and about the critical need for partnership in effectively addressing global health challenges.
Participants were then asked to break into teams, and to imagine how they could create interdisciplinary approaches to medical challenges such as cleft lip. Despite their varying professional backgrounds and countries of origins, there was a consensus among the group that community outreach and engagement was an undeniably key component in effective surgical care.
Network-building and investing in surgeons who are dedicated to mentoring and creating local networks of surgeons is a cornerstone of Mission: Restore’s work worldwide, and we could not be more excited to have this inaugural class leaving EART16 with this renewed call to action.
Come back to our blog tomorrow for a recap of our final day of EART16!
