Dear Friends Three weeks with PAACS at Soddo Christian Hospital 400km (250 miles) southwest of Addis Ababa

is slowly coming to an end. It was a good place for me to be. To be involved in this program is simply wonderful. Soddo, a city of roughly 70 000 people, is located in the Wolaitta region of Ethiopia a beautiful area and about 6900 ft above sea level.

Looking down from Mt Damota towards Soddo

This was my third visit working with PAACS at this hospital. My previous visits were at Mbingo and Banso Baptist Hospitals in the Northwest of Cameroon.

Duplex housing and I am privileged to stay in the house on the left

The Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) (www.paacs.net) is a rural based health initiative, existing as a strategic response to the vast surgical needs in Africa to glorify God and to provide excellent, compassionate care to those most in need treating people of all faiths. PAACSs short term goal is to train and disciple at least a hundred African surgeons by 2020 graduating 20 surgeons per year. Twenty surgeons per year might not seem a large number but significant on a continent where 20 surgeons is more than what 20 countries have at the moment eg. Liberia has 3 surgeons for the whole country, Sierra Leone 5. PAACSs educational partnership is with the Christian Medical and Dental Association of the US and academically credentialed by the Loma Linda University in California bringing Christians from all over the world to train and disciple African surgeons for a lifetime of service to offer physical and spiritual healing.

The

The hospital is spread out on ground level but here are views of two of the sections

You might notice the times of the clinics. Ethiopian time as well as the month and year calendar are different from the rest of the world. Can be confusing at times!

The training offered by PAACS takes a minimum of 5 years to complete. Each training hospital requires two fulltime qualified surgeons overseeing the program. At the end of each year, a resident must pass a written examination prepared by PAACS before advancing to the next level. At the end of the fifth year, successful residents receive a diploma, awarded jointly by PAACS, the Christian Medical and Dental Association of the US and Loma Linda University School of Medicine. This will enable and qualify the PAACS trainee to sit for the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) examinations and for the West African College of Surgeons (WACS) and complete their training and qualifications to serve as fully trained surgeons in Africa. There are 35 surgeons in the training programs at this moment committed to their work, committed to Christ, committed to spread the News about life in Christ now and eternally. More than twenty surgeons have completed their training at this stage and are working in rural Africa. Nine new trainees will join the program in August. Each of these surgeons are likely to do at least 25 000 operations and see up to 80 000 patients over the course of a lifetime bringing physical and spiritual healing to many.

Most of the times these qualified surgeons would end up in rural Africa where they might be the only surgeon and they are trained to deal with orthopaedic surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, thoracic-, neuro-, and plastic reconstructive surgery , urology, basically all possible surgical fields. And this is where plastic surgeons fit it, to guide the residence through operating room instructions, ward rounds and formal lectures the principles of reconstructive surgery so that they would have the background to deal with these problems when they encounter them; burn contractures, cleft lip and palate surgery, hand surgery, facial fractures, flaps to cover exposed limb fractures, facial tumours, hypospadias, etc

Scalp wound after trauma with bone loss over the brain and attempted closure. The second picture after flap closure and skin graft.

Z-plasty release of a burn contracture.

Many of you might have read this story on the GlzG facebook page;

http://www.facebook.com/GlzG.org

Mossy Foot

I saw this 30 year old man at the hospital clinic. He had no money to buy shoes and spent his life barefoot. The result: Mossy Foot (Podoconiosis), a disease that manifests as massive swelling of the feet and legs. Over time the skin becomes very rough and bumpy and look likes moss hence the name. The swelling is painful and the discomfort often makes it impossible for the sufferer to walk, let alone carry out normal work and family duties. Recurrent infections usually result in an offensive smell. Sufferers are ostracized and are often forced to become beggars and some community members believe that they have been cursed. Often, they are shunned like lepers. Mossy Foot disease affects about 5% of the population in highland tropical areas with volcanic soils and lots of rainfall. This geographical combination produces a sticky red soil, rich in silicates that can penetrate the skin of susceptible people as they go about their daily business barefoot. He was scheduled for surgery and now the long road to recovery. The second foot has also been done and both sides hopefully ready for skin grafts this week.

After the Right Foot was done

Sole of the Foot spared in the Disease

Gods grace in suffering? On the left hand picture it is clearly seen that the sole of the foot is spared an absolute unique piece of tissue designed to walk on. Irreplaceable. And always spared in this disease. So we can cut away all the diseased tissue and replace it with a skin graft from his legs on the top and sides of the feet and he would be able to walk. If the sole of the foot was affected and part of the disease and removal needed he would never have been able to walk after surgery! A major factor in these patients recovery and return to normal life God protected the soles from the disease so that we can be used in His service to help these patients to a functional life. With Ireland now not on my agenda anymore and much more time to be spent in Africa and in the training of surgeons I realize my responsibility to sharpen my own knowledge to the maximum and hope to visit relevant academic surgical units whenever possible so that I know that the knowledge I transfer to trainees is totally up to date. But this new venture need your support. My work involves Mercy Ships, PAACS, Operation Smile, Amsterdam RLD, Vredendal and Zithuleles Mercy Vision Eye project. We need your help to help them, serving God by serving the poor; physical and spiritually. But also with a heavy emphases on training. I am in effect totally dependent on support and would ask you to visit the GlzG facebook page http://www.facebook.com/GlzG.org and the support website www.GlzG.org On the help us to help them page are the different possibilities that you can help should you wish to consider it. I have certainly had support from many in the form of prayer, financial and speaking engagements in church and Rotary slowly becoming a reality for which Im really thankful to each of you who promised support and giving support. I know God is in this and He is providing. And so thankful for each one who responded in writing to my last newsletter. Your support means a lot to me. My life has certainly taken a new direction in more than one way and it has been a long time since Ive had so much peace, content and especially joy. Friday Ill fly to Amsterdam for a week and then South Africa for two weeks in which time I will visit Vredendal Hospital on the West Coast and the

Zithulele Hospital where the Mercy Vision project near the beautiful Hole in the Wall on the Transkei Coast is becoming a reality. The video on this project can be seen at Zithulele Hospital. Then back to Amsterdam for 2 weeks and for 5 weeks to Guinea, West Africa, with Mercy Ships. Greetings and blessings from Soddo

Tertius