About

Safe Anesthesia & Surgery Saves Lives

Without safe surgery and anesthesia, mothers die in obstructed labour, children remain disabled with inherited malformations and trauma cannot be treated. There is a critical shortage of anesthesiologists globally and many cannot access the surgery they so desperately need.

Our Model

The Problem

Globally, too many people die because surgery isn’t available. In fact, the number of people who die due to lack of access to safe surgical and anesthesia care is more than all those who die of HIV, TB and malaria combined.

Our solution

CASIEF volunteers help build sustainable training programs for anesthesiologists. We focus on developing strong local leaders who go on to train others, develop new services and impact the healthcare system of their whole country.

How we work

When CASIEF started working in Nepal in the 1980’s there were only 7 anesthesiologists in the country. With a 20-year commitment to supporting sustainable training programs in Nepal, 62 anesthesiologists were trained and successfully leading a thriving training program. As of 2017 there were 235 anesthesiologists in Nepal. We now support similar programs in Rwanda, Guyana and Ethiopia.

Why Anesthesia

Surgical care has been neglected in global health for decades, leaving weak healthcare systems. There can be no safe surgery without anesthesia, but anesthesia care has been forgotten even more than surgery! In many countries, lack of anesthesia care is the limiting factor to the availability of surgery, often there are just too few anesthesiologists.

Countries

0 +

Anesthesiologists trained

0 +

Patients treated

0 +

Volunteers

Why CASIEF

“The CASIEF model works really well because it is simple and sustainable. Its mission is really to train people who can become future leaders in anesthesia…You see them blossom as leaders, and that is incredibly rewarding”.