A group of physicians including OBGYN surgeons, CRNA's, nurses, scrub techs, plus other nonclinical volunteers will travel with the nonprofit group Operation International to perform free life-changing healthcare to women in need.
Our team will head to Kakamega, Kenya which is the hometown of one of our operating room RN, Ian Otinga who is leading the medical mission and is a Kenya native. We will provide life altering surgical interventions including myomectomy, hysterectomy, ovarian cystectomy, saplingo-oophorectomy and more. We plan to help women suffering from abnormal uterine vaginal bleeding, endometriosis and fibroids, and other gynecologic conditions.
The expected impact is great! Other team LA missions have preceded ours. On their first medical mission team LA performed 136 surgeries in just one week in 2025.. This year's team hopes to help many women in Kakamega, Kenya. We plan to bring our experience back to others to encourage them to join one day as well.
They say mission work in Kenya can be life-changing, and for me, it truly was. At Vihiga County Hospital, we cared for Kenyan women with fibroids and other gynecologic needs in an extremely under-resourced community. Our team of 21, working with Operation International, was welcomed by the governor of Vihiga County before beginning clinic on a Sunday. Many women walked miles from surrounding counties to meet with us. They are women just like us, but without access to the medications, gynecologic care, or surgery needed to manage fibroids, bleeding, and pain. Some do not even have menstrual products, so their symptoms are made even more difficult by extreme economic hardship. During the mission, we saw more than 200 women and performed more than 50 complex, major abdominal gynecologic surgeries. We also partnered with more than 100 incredible Kenyan health care volunteers who supported our mission. They were educated, knowledgeable, and deeply committed, but often lacked the equipment and medications needed to provide the care they wanted to offer. Throughout the week, we worked together with respect, exchanged knowledge, and became like a family. I hope we left them feeling a little more comfortable and confident in providing gynecologic surgical care. My heart is still full from this mission, and the experience has changed me forever. It made me want to do more to help people, especially those most in need. I realized that my capacity to serve others is greater than I had understood before. I am also profoundly grateful for the health care resources we have in our country and at our hospital, and I now see even more clearly how resourceful and efficient we can be with what we have. Most importantly, I realized that health care should be an essential right for all people. Life without access to health care is devastating.
The community outreach to girls in grades 4 through 9 was equally meaningful. We met with the governor, encouraged the girls to stay in school and pursue their education, and emphasized that knowledge can help them succeed and achieve their goals. We also distributed menstrual hygiene products. It was truly an unforgettable experience.
