Continuing plastic surgery education for COSECSA surgeons (College of Surgeons Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa. We will be administering oral examinations in plastic surgery to grant the candidates board certification. Our goal is to give these surgeons the education and tools to help them not only become independent, but to become teachers themselves. We will also be participating in the scientific meeting that will accompany the examinations.
My specific interest is in three Burundian plastic surgeons in training for whom our support will equip them to care for the tens of thousands of Burundian patients in need of reconstructive surgery. They will become the first plastic surgeons in this desperately poor country of 14 million.
Ultimately the 500 million people of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa will have better access to live saving and life changing reconstructive surgery.
As noted above. Currently there is a dearth of desperately needed reconstructive surgeons. We plan to correct this through education, practical training, financial support, support from their peers in higher income countries.
My abundant thanks to the Doximity Foundation for helping our group to accomplish its goals for this trip. I was representing two organizations, ReSurge International (California) and Village Health Works (Burundi). Our objectives were twofold.
One, to attend the annual scientific meeting of COSESCA (College of Surgeons for Eastern, Southern, and Central Africa). I was asked to make a presentation on plastic surgery training. This meeting included the oral board examinations for COSESCA candidates in all the surgical fields. Representatives from ReSurge serve as the external board examiners in plastic surgery. All 14 plastic surgery candidates passed the examination allowing them to graduate with Board Certification!
ReSurge's mission is to mentor and teach plastic surgery skills to surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses serving in low income countries. Our goal is for those we teach to become teachers themselves. The meeting included the formal COSESCA graduation ceremonies which were a thrill and happy occasion for the candidates and their families.
The second objective was to introduce the only three Burundian plastic surgeons (two in training) to ReSurge and to Village Health Works. VHW, established almost 20 years ago in Kigutu, Burundi, is a community of health care providers inspired by Dr. Paul Farmer's Partners in Health. We are working to staff the clinic and new hospital with well trained physicians, nurses, and staff. As a plastic surgeon, I've been a volunteer with VHW since 2009, and a surgeon/teacher for ReSurge since 1981. To jump start our VHW program to provide reconstructive surgery care to the patients of central Burundi, we staged a joint visit of ReSurge representatives with two of the three Burundian plastic surgeons (we had identified) to travel to Kigutu to meet the VHW team. After their time in Kigutu, the surgeons have chosen to join our VHW staff, and to play a larger role as they complete their training. ReSurge representatives having met these young plastic surgeons, and having visited VHW, is now committed to assisting in their training and to supporting us at VHW.
I will return to Kigutu, Burundi in September 2026 to treat patients, teach reconstructive surgery, and continue recruiting medical professionals. In April I will lead a teaching team to Itigi, Tanzania to work with one of our ReSurge partners, surgeon Dr. Seif Nuru. Dr. Nuru has been volunteering his time to work with me in Kigutu with VHW, and he will host a Burundian plastic surgeon at his hospital for intense training during my time there in April.
I again wish to thank the Doximity Foundation for supporting the efforts of ReSurge and Village Health Works. The donation of my airfare allows me to use the money I would have spent to pay for the transportation of our East African surgeons to attend educational meetings and to meet us in different locations for hands on training.
All my best wishes,
William McClure, MD
Note: The photos show the graduation ceremonies, me speaking at the COSESCA meeting, COSESCA colleagues and fellow speakers, the VHW hospital in Kigutu, part of the VHW team, and the Burundian plastic surgeons, Drs. Yves Bizoza and Emile Ndizeye touring the hospital grounds
