Partnership: Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons
Networking mission hospitals to train national missionary surgeons
By Dr. David Stevens, WGM Board of Directors
January-March 2014
By Dr. David Stevens, WGM Board of Directors
January-March 2014
There is one trained surgeon in Africa for every 250,000 to 2.5 million people. (That’s like having four surgeons for New York City!) A nationalized mission hospital won’t survive financially without a surgeon. That’s why the Christian Medical & Dental Associations started the Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons to help catalyze, resource, accredit, and network mission hospitals to train national missionary surgeons.
I served for 11 years at Tenwek Hospital, which headed the list of ideal hospitals for one of the first training programs. World Gospel Mission has a long history of synergizing with other organizations of like mind. Like CMDA, WGM knows that the product is always more than the sum of the parts when you are not worried about who gets the credit—except for God.
Tenwek has very advanced surgical and research capabilities, so residents from other PAACS-affiliated hospitals often rotate there. It is the only mission hospital in sub-Saharan Africa doing open heart surgery and is a world leader in the surgical treatment of esophageal cancer.
The PAACS residency program is now functioning in seven mission hospitals, and two more in Tanzania are about to join the effort. Forty surgeons have been trained and 40 more are now being taught in five-year programs. Highly competent and discipled, they will bring surgery and salvation for Africa for decades to come.
Working together, we can always do more!
GIVE: While Tenwek Hospital’s medical services are patient-fee funded and usually affordable, these services are also made possible through donations from ministry partners like you. Learn how you can partner with Tenwek Hospital at www.wgm.org/tenwek.
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