Rwandan Women Surgeons to COSECSA

Dear Friends,

This letter goes out to each of you to express our deep and heartfelt gratitude for your financial support for Alice, Florence and Francoise to attend and present at the COSECSA (College of Surgery of East Central and Southern Africa) meeting in Blantyre, Malawi last week. I am writing on all of our behalf with input from the whole team:

Alice Niragire
Florence Umurangwa
Francoise Mukagaju
Ainhoa Costas
Vanessa Fawcett
Jennifer Kreshak
Robert Riviello
Professor Emile Rwamasirabo
 
These last several days in Blantyre, Malawi have been truly wonderful for all of us.  The theme of this year’s annual meeting for COSECSA was “Addressing the Umnet Surgical Need”. Truly inspiring to see what needs to be done, what has been done, and what can be done in this region to deliver care to the neglected surgical patient. And this time has been a pivotal professional experience for Drs. Alice, Florence, and Francoise. With the support you generously contributed (in just a few days and far beyond our target!) you made many things possible:

1)   Alice, Florence, and Francoise made it to the launch of the Women in Surgery, Africa (WiSA) meeting.  There were 30 women participants. I’d like to point out that COSECSA has 10 member countries; Rwanda is one of the smallest countries. But with your help Rwanda was represented by 3 women, 10% of the participants – a strong showing!

2)   These surgeons were inspired by talks from great leaders in the field including Patricia Newman (one of the first women to enter surgical training in the US in the 1960s), and Jane Faulal (one of the first women to enter surgical training in the Uganda in the 1980s).

3)   They networked with counterparts, and now colleagues, from around the region and surgeons from around the world.

4)   We grew in our understanding of the challenges in delivering surgical care in the region and sharing in the exciting innovations and ideas for addressing these challenges.

5)   They bonded together as leaders of surgery for Rwanda and as mentors of the women surgeons coming behind them.

6)   Last, but not least, they presented excellently at the scientific forum. After they spoke, professors and colleagues came to them to talk about their presentations and continue the discussion of their work. (For the medically curious among you, their topics were: 1) Francoise: The role of reversed sural artery flaps in the coverage of complex foot wounds, 2) Florence: Reporting on a case series of TB epididymitis and diagnostic and management strategies learned, and 3) Alice: A randomized controlled trial between two local anesthesia management schemes – lignocaine only vs. combined lignocaine and bupivacaine). They made us all proud!

We are still settling out funds, but we will have some surplus from these donations. (estimating around $500). In the spirit of this effort, we will apply these funds to future opportunities to advance the careers of Rwandan surgery residents. Stay tuned, as we hope to set up a future annual competitive scholarship fund for travel to COSECSA.

[Special thanks too, to Allison Silverstein, global surgery research associate through the Harvard Program in Global Surgery and Social Change for setting and maintaining this GoFundMe site!]

Before we close, perhaps the best reporting will come in their own words:

Alice: “We are grateful to all of you who contributed for our trip to Malawi and for the WiSA launch. It was really a great privilege to be there. Thank you very much!”

Francoise: “Many thanks to all of you for your contribution and support. I was happy to attend the COSECSA conference and the WiSA launch. Many thanks, be blessed.”

Florence: “ Words can’t be enough to thank you and presents are nothing. My heartfelt gratitude for all of you who contributed for our trip to Malawi. Yes, we did it! We launched the WiSA (taking the road less travelled). We presented in an international conference, and most of all, we made friends. Murakoze cyane. May God bless you.”

So, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you. You have been a critical support to Rwanda’s surgeons.

Chirurgien Niragire, Chirurgien Umurangwa, and Chirurgien Mukagaju










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Of 50 current surgery residents in Rwanda, 4 are women. The University of Rwanda department of surgery has graduated one woman in surgery, to date. 3 of the 4 of these are presenting their research at RSS these couple days (a much higher proportion than their male counterparts). As we can all recognize, this vanguard group needs to be encouraged, nurtured, and mentored so that their full potential can be maximized, and that they may mentor the women who will come after them in Surgery in Rwanda.

COSECSA (the College of Surgery of East Central and Southern Africa) is having it's annual meeting in Malawi in a couple weeks. 3 of these women have had abstracts accepted for presentation. Furthermore, the Women in Surgery Africa (WiSA) group - the first ever group of its kind - is having its inaugural gathering during the COSECSA meeting. http://www.womeninsurgeryafrica.org

We want to find a way to get these incredible young women to the conference. Getting to Malawi isn't easy. We estimate that flights + hotel will costs $3500 total for the 3. Please consider donating to the cause to help support these women and the future of Rwandan surgery.

Any funds collected beyond the $3500 will go towards a scholarship fund to provide other resident surgeons with the opportunity to attend conferences and present their hard work.