CASIEF Featured in CAS Anesthesia News

DEAR CAS MEMBERS AND CASIEF SUPPORTERS:

It has been an incredible year for CASIEF with great success in all our respective programs. CASIEF runs through the amazing generosity of Canadian anesthesiologists and we would like to thank you for your donations that allow us to work on improving the capacity for safe anesthesia care in some of the poorest countries in the world.

In previous years, we have had very successful fundraising drives, including for Lifebox, and in 2019 we would like to set a new target for our goals in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is at a crossroads for anesthesia. The government seems committed to increasing the numbers of residents and residency programs, and there is a huge number of learners, probably 100 residents in Addis Ababa alone next year. There are, however, very few local teachers. We feel that if we can provide support to scale up anesthesia training in Ethiopia, there can be a big change over the next five to six years. We plan to collaborate with partners in the US to work together on scaling up anesthesia training in Ethiopia. We want to send more volunteers, and we would like to fund some volunteers for longer (6 – 12 month) visits. We would like to get Ethiopian residents and fellows to Canada for training that they can’t get in-country. We would also like to provide administrative support in scaling up the residency program nationally and supporting local leaders in achieving this. Our fundraising goal is to raise $100,000 by June 2019. Many of you already give generously, and we would like to ask you to consider giving more to this particular cause. Many anesthesiologists prefer to make larger donations in the form of securities or stocks and, if you are considering this, please contact us at info@casief.ca.

We would like to apply the successful model we have used in Rwanda to Ethiopia, but the training gap in Ethiopia is on a completely different scale. Please help us to work with our partners in Ethiopia and the US to make the same impact on Ethiopian anesthesia that we have made in Rwanda. If you are thinking of volunteering, please contact Julian.Barnbrook@casief.ca for further information, or sign up here.

Lastly, we are excited to announce the annual CASIEF dinner will be located at an interesting venue in Calgary. More information to come in the new year — we hope to see you there.