Rescuing severely damaged faces.
Facing Africa funds two teams of highly skilled and experienced volunteer surgeons from the UK and Ireland to Ethiopia each year to perform complex facial reconstructive surgery on the victims of the disease noma and other severe facial disfigurments.
In 1998, Chris Lawrence heard about the terrible plight of the hundreds of thousands of children suffering the dreadful and shocking destructive and devastating effects of “Noma”.
Each team is made up of 4 surgeons (plastic, maxillo-facial and cranio-facial), 3 anaesthetists, 3 operating room nurses, 3 ward nurses, a doctor and 2 wound care nurses. Each surgical mission spends 2 weeks in Ethiopia and generally carries out 25 – 35 facial reconstructions. The cost of each mission is around £ 75,000 (US $ 105,000).
In addition to the surgery, Facing Africa also encourages local doctors, surgeons and nurses to attend lectures and presentations done by our volunteers in order to teach them new and better procedures and techniques. Ethiopian surgeons are invited to observe and assist during surgery. Facing Africa also donates surgical instruments, consumables and disposables to Ethiopian hospitals at the end of each mission.
Dr Grand Rodney teaching Ethiopian trainee anaesthetists at the Nordic Medical Centre.
Nurses Donna and Fiona with manager Selam taking a patient back to Facing Africa House after surgery.
Nurse Sheila and FA employee Wassie taking patients back to Facing Africa House after surgery.
Woundcare Nurse Pat McCluskey teaching Nordic Medical Centre student nurses.
Pre Covid-19 Mission
October 2019 Mission Update
An amazing team of 16 medical volunteers worked at the Nordic Medical Centre in Addis Ababa carrying out life changing surgeries on 23 patients with noma and other facial deformities.
To see our patients stories from October click here: Patient Stories
Facing Africa Documentaries and Videos.
Click here to see more
BBC Documentary 2010 ‘Make Me a New Face’
