This week a team of IVUmed volunteers is in Dakar, Senegal focusing on teaching pediatric urology and urologic oncology.
Here are a few notes from IVUmed board member and volunteer nurse, Barbara Montagnino, RN:
Bonjour from Dakar!
Everyone arrived on time as did our luggage and supplies. On Sunday we received a warm welcome from the head of department, Professor Serigne Gueye. Our team has both pediatric and uro-oncology volunteers. On the first day, the uro-oncologist volunteers booked several patients for surgery who have complex urological tumors. The team also saw 22 pre-selected kids in clinic and booked 13 for surgery. With limited time and resources for the week, we unfortunately can’t operate on all. There are some sad cases with many families traveling from surrounding countries who were not chosen for surgery. Hopefully the local urologists will be able to help them with their improved skills after the team is gone.
This is a multi-national workshop. There are urologists from Senegal, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger, Cameroon, Mauritania all in attendance. The impact of this training will be far reaching! The colorful IVUmed hats are a hit and a coveted item.
There is good interaction between our team and our hosts who have been welcoming to us. There is sincere willingness to learn but language is a barrier. We are all learning a few French phrases and fortunately team member Dr. Toren speaks French.
We are getting used to seeing goats on the side of the streets all over the city as well as the local mode of transportation: brightly painted van packed to the max than two or three people stand in on bumper and hanging on while texting.
You can support the team and their efforts by donating online HERE.