Interview with Dr. Michael W. Payne on the show ‘Success Today’
Charity – Loliondo Tansania 2023
In just six days, 62 operations were carried out in Tanzania, in the border area between Tanzania and Kenya, specifically Loliondo. This time our team consisted of four anesthesiologists, four surgeons and three operating room nurses. This diverse group included people from Argentina, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland.
The team operated under difficult conditions and simple conditions. In Tanzania, specialized medical care is rare and expensive.
This trip was organized by Pro Interplast, a plastic surgeons’ charity.
Their goal is not only to operate on people in the poorest countries in the world, but also to educate and train local doctors. This is intended to ensure that medical care continues after the deployment ends.
The message is clear: everyone can help, and every contribution counts. The mission in Tanzania not only changed the lives of the patients, but also our lives. For us, it was an opportunity to give back and realize how much we can achieve even when resources are limited.
Charity – Loliondo Tansania 2022
Looking back at the first mission at the Sakala Health Center
Your team’s first visit to the Sakala Health Center in Loliondo, Tanzania was an enormous challenge. Despite previous announcements, local people had doubts as to whether help would actually arrive, as they had often been forgotten in the past. The choice of this location by Moses, our local organizer, turned out to be an important step in helping a health center that needed much more than just surgical support.
Our team, consisting of 2 anesthesiologists, 4 surgeons and 2 operating nurses, was full of motivation and brought a lot of materials with us. When we arrived, we found an existing but unused infrastructure and faced a large number of patients with a wide range of medical needs.
Despite the difficult circumstances and the initial uncertainty as to whether the effort would be worth it, you made the best of the situation. Such first missions are often characterized by imponderables and the realization that the needs on site sometimes exceed expectations and plans. However, your commitment and efforts have laid a crucial foundation for future help and a lasting improvement in medical care in this region. Every step towards help and support, no matter how small it may seem at first, is an important contribution that can have a big impact in the long term.