Overseas Outreach

The 2021 Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Foundation humanitarian trip to Vietnam has been canceled due to COVID-19. Updates will be provided when available.
Watch this page for future volunteer opportunities!

Through the Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Foundation Overseas Outreach Projects, AOFAS members have the opportunity to use their surgical expertise to help children and adults in underserved areas. Surgeons volunteer time and pay for their own travel, and the Foundation covers in-country expenses for food, lodging, travel, and logistics support.

The Foundation currently sponsors outreach trips to Vietnam and Kenya with plans to expand to new sites in the future. Contact foundation@aofas.org with questions.

Vietnam

Since the first Overseas Outreach Project to Vietnam in 2002, AOFAS volunteers have performed surgery on more than 1,500 patients and evaluated more than 3,500 patients in clinics, all at no charge to the patients. More than 60 AOFAS members from around the world have participated in the project. Read about the 2019 Vietnam Project.

Volunteer surgeons spend 1-2 weeks in Vietnam and Hanoi working side-by-side with Vietnamese orthopaedic surgeons – teaching, seeing patients in the clinics, and performing surgery. Volunteers also present at the annual orthopaedic educational conference in Hanoi and at provincial hospitals. The annual project is scheduled over a four-week period. The 2021 trip has been postponed due to COVID-19.

Kenya

The Humanitarian Services Committee selected Kenya as an additional site for humanitarian outreach. Currently, Kenya has less than 100 orthopaedic surgeons for a population of nearly 50 million and adult foot and ankle surgery is virtually non-existent.

The project takes place in Kijabe, Kenya, at two distinct hospitals — the AIC CURE Kenya Hospital and the Kijabe Mission Hospital. The CURE hospital is primarily pediatric orthopaedics with some elective adult surgery, whereas the Kijabe Mission Hospital runs more like a general hospital with acute trauma and adult reconstruction.

AOFAS volunteers work alongside well-trained Kenyan attending and resident orthopaedic surgeons in both the operating room and clinic, providing much-needed education in adult foot and ankle surgery. Volunteers are expected to do formal presentations along with teaching in clinical situations.

The inaugural trip to Kenya was in October 2019. Read about the Kenya project.

Future Sites

In response to the great interest from AOFAS members for service opportunities, the Humanitarian Services Committee is currently exploring additional sites for humanitarian outreach. Watch this page for updates.

Gifts to the Humanitarian Service Fund

Thank you to the following individual donors for their contributions to the Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Foundation to support Overseas Outreach Projects since 2019 (updated on April 30, 2021). To add your name to the growing list of supporters, please click the link below.

Eric M. Bluman, MD, PhD
John H. Bowker, MD
Jarrett D. Cain, DPM, MSc
Donald J. Covell, MD
Naven Duggal, MD
F. Scott Gray, MD

Glenn J. Jarrett, MD
Mark W. Scioli, MD
Pierce E. Scranton Jr., MD
Wen Shen, MD
Jon Simon
James D. Walwark

Give to the Humanitarian Service Fund

"This type of mission really tests you and makes you realize how lucky we are in our first-world situations... It is a privilege to be able to help people who would otherwise get limited or no care for their problems."
— Geoffrey M. Tymms, MBBS, Melbourne, Australia

"My favorite part of this mission is working with the other AOFAS surgeons. We learn from each other."
— Ruth L. Thomas, MD, Little Rock, Arkansas

Interested in volunteering? Ask these AOFAS members about their experiences!

Jorge Acevedo, MD (Jacksonville, FL)
Mario Kuhn Adames, MD (Florianopolis, Brazil)
Robert S. Adelaar, MD (Richmond, VA)
Angel Arnaud Franco, MD (Monterrey, Mexico)
L. Samuel Barouk, MD (Bordeaux, France)
Judith F. Baumhauer, MD, MPH (Rochester, NY)
D. Scott Biggerstaff, MD (Winston-Salem, NC)
R. Dale Blasier, MD (Little Rock, AR)
Nathan Bruck, MD (Givatayim, Israel)
Justin L. Cashman III, MD (Annapolis, MD)
Loretta B. Chou, MD (Redwood City, CA)
R. Richard Coughlin, MD (San Francisco, CA)
Raman K. Dega, MBBS (Wexham, England)
Greta E. Dereymaeker, MD (Leuven, Belgium)
John A. DiPreta, MD (Albany, NY)
Paul S. Docktor, MD (Denver, CO)
Sandra A. Eisele, MD, MBA (Cincinnati, OH)
Jessica A. Faught, MD (Portland, ME)
Lorenzo Gamez, MD (East Setauket, NY)
William H. Gondring, MD (St. Joseph, MO)
F. Scott Gray, MD (Danbury, CT)
Naren G. Gurbani, MD (Downey, CA)
Aaron J. Guyer, MD (Tallahassee, FL)
Thomas Hearty, MD, DPT (Bethesda, MD)
Paul J. Hecht, MD (Lebanon, NH)
Minoo H. Hollis, MD (Navarre, FL)
A. Holly Johnson, MD (Boston, MA)
Paul J. Juliano, MD (Hershey, PA)
Justin M. Kane, MD (Dallas, TX)
L. Daniel Latt, MD, PhD (Tucson, AZ)
Thomas H. Lee, MD (Pickerington, OH)
Lowell D. Lutter, MD (St. Paul, MN)
Victor W. Macko, MD (Stockton, CA)
Angus M. McBryde, MD (Columbia, SC)

Thomas A. McDonald, MD (Springfield, MA)
Francis X. McGuigan, MD (Washington, DC)
Kathleen A. McHale, MD (Alexandria, VA)
Robert Mihalich, MD (Brighton, MI)
João de Carvalho Neto, MD (São Paulo, Brazil)
Mier Nyska, MD (Sde-Nitzan, Israel)
Phinit Phisitkul, MD (Sioux City, IA)
E. Greer Richardson, MD (Memphis, TN)
Pascal F. Rippstein, MD (Zurich, Switzerland)
Michael M. Romash, MD (Chesapeake, VA)
Nimrod Ron, MD (Caesarea, Israel)
Peter B. Salamon, MD (Stockton, CA)
Pierce E. Scranton, MD (Kirkland, WA)
Steven C. Sheskier, MD (New York, NY)
Naomi N. Shields, MD (San Antonio, TX)
Mark P. Slovenkai, MD (Chestnut Hill, MA)
Michael B. Strauss, MD (Long Beach, CA)
Raymond J. Sullivan, MD (Hartford, CT)
Altug Tanriover, MD (Ankara, Turkey)
Ruth L. Thomas, MD (Little Rock, AR)
Saul G. Trevino, MD (Morrisville, VT)
J. Loch Trimingham, MD (Bellingham, WA)
Geoffrey M. Tymms, MBBS (Melbourne, Australia)
Isabella V. van Dalen, MD, PhD (Almere, Netherlands)
Robert G. Veith, MD (Renton, WA)
J. Turner Vosseller, MD (New York, NY)
Keith L. Wapner, MD (Philadelphia, PA)
Joan R. Williams, MD (Santa Monica, CA)
Yuan Zhu, MD (Shanghai, China)

Thank You

Past funding for the 2019 Overseas Outreach Project to Vietnam has been provided by the Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Foundation, supported by grants from Stryker.

Thank You

Additional past funding for humanitarian programs has been provided by the Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Foundation, supported by grants from Paragon 28 and Treace Medical Concepts, Inc.

Paragon28