Annually, Mission: Restore hosts the East Africa Regional Training, which brings together surgeons from hospitals throughout Africa.We provide hands-on reconstructive surgical training, lectures, workshops, and offer surgeons networking opportunities to share common challenges and discuss how to improve surgical care in their communities. The 2016 Regional Training hosted 41 surgeon participants, 25% of whom were women, at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi. Surgeons came to the three-day training from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Zambia, Congo-­‐Brazzaville, Swaziland, Egypt, Bangladesh and the United States.

Given last year’s success, Mission: Restore has been invited to host the 2017 East Africa Training at Coast General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya. Building upon the successes of last year’s training, the 2017 Regional Training will include 20% more surgeon participants, as well as multiple new countries being represented such as Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An increased number of surgeon trainers from a variety of specialties and countries will be facilitating this year’s training, sharing their expertise through new panels and interactive sessions. By supporting local surgeons through the 2017 East Africa Regional Training, we can address hospital capacity issues and improve access to surgical care throughout Africa.

Mission: Restore’s sustainable model bridges education gaps through surgical trainings, builds networks with telemedicine and supports local change makers through educational grants. The surgeons we train act as mentors and share their newly learned skills with local doctors and medical interns when they return home, spreading knowledge and expanding the scope and impact of each training.

The 2017 East Africa Regional Training is made possible thanks to our sponsors: Acelity, Allergan Foundation, GMS Systems, Sientra, and SmileTrain.