SPRING 2026 - EAST AFRICAN MISSION REPORT

March – April 2026

Dear Friends and Supporters of

Reconstructing Women International,

This spring, guided by our founding philosophy of women helping women, Reconstructing Women International (RWI) completed an ambitious series of surgical missions across East Africa. Our all-female surgical teams — surgeons, anaesthesiologists, and nurses — travelled from Europe and North America to bring advanced reconstructive techniques to hospitals in Kenya and Tanzania, directly transforming the lives of women and girls while building a lasting legacy of local surgical expertise.

Our Mission: Healing Today, Empowering Tomorrow

RWI’s model is unique: we do not simply arrive, operate, and leave. Our teams are globally recognized experts in reconstructive surgery — faculty and educators at leading academic medical centres, who have trained surgeons across multiple continents. Every mission pairs this world-class expertise with rigorous on-the-ground teaching, ensuring that local surgeons acquire advanced skills they will use to serve their communities long after our teams have gone home. This dual commitment — surgical care and surgical training — is the foundation of everything we do.

Spring 2026 Missions at a Glance

1) Nairobi — KUTRRH: Breast Reconstruction Training

At Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital, our team taught advanced breast reconstruction techniques to local surgical staff and provided reconstructive care to 10 breast cancer survivors. Mastectomy — often the only available treatment for breast cancer across sub-Saharan Africa — leaves patients without access to reconstructive procedures that are routine in Europe and North America. Our team demonstrated methods that restore both form and dignity, equipping Kenyan surgeons to provide these procedures independently.

2) Mombasa — Aga Khan Hospital: Surgery for Women and Girls

Our team performed reconstructive surgery for 20 women and girls, addressing conditions that had profoundly affected their physical wellbeing and quality of life. Two local female plastic surgeons participated throughout, deepening their expertise in advanced techniques. This investment in local female surgeons is at the heart of RWI’s philosophy: women helping women. Women surgeons serve as role models and earn the trust of patients navigating sensitive procedures in ways that matter deeply.

​3) Dar es Salaam — Muhimbili Hospital: Microsurgery & Limb Salvage

At Muhimbili National Hospital, our team delivered advanced microsurgery training focused on limb salvage after trauma — a field where expertise can mean the difference between saving a limb and amputation. 

One case stood out above all others: an 18-year-old girl whose injury would otherwise have required amputation. Our team performed a free flap procedure — transplanting living tissue to reconstruct the damaged area — saving her limb entirely. She left with her future, and her

mobility, intact.

​Pictured: Winifred Walking!

4) Nairobi — Kenyatta University Hospital: Microsurgery & Facial Trauma

At Kenyatta University Hospital, our team conducted an advanced training programme in microsurgery and facial trauma reconstruction, attended by more than 30 surgical residents — surgeons in postgraduate training. For many, this was their first exposure to these techniques. Thirty surgeons trained today means thousands of patients helped in the years ahead.

5) Dar es Salaam — Aga Khan Hospital: Life-Changing Reconstructive Surgery

At the Aga Khan Hospital, our team performed reconstructive procedures for 16 women and girls living with deformities and disabilities caused by accidents, domestic violence, and mastectomy for breast cancer. These were surgeries that restored function, corrected disfigurement, and gave women back their sense of self. Many had waited years for care that was simply not available locally. For them, RWI’s arrival represented a turning point. 

The Impact of Your Support

Across five hospitals, the spring 2026 missions delivered:

• 50+ women and girls received direct reconstructive surgical care in Nairobi, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam

• 30+ surgical residents trained in microsurgery and advanced reconstruction at Kenyatta and Muhimbili University Hospitals

• 6 local female plastic surgeons in Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and Nairobi expanded their advanced reconstructive expertise

• Breast reconstruction training delivered at KUTRRH Nairobi, building post-mastectomy care capacity in Kenya

• All-female teams from Europe, Canada, and the U.S. building trust with patients, advocating for healthcare for women and modelling gender equity in surgery​​​

Thank You

None of this work is possible without your generosity. The women and girls who came to our surgical tables this spring — some carrying injuries that had defined their daily lives for years — deserved skilled hands, compassionate care, and a genuine chance at recovery.

You make that possible.

We also made an investment in the future: in the surgeons we trained, in the local female doctors who will serve as clinicians and role models, and in hospitals now better equipped to serve women across East Africa. From Europe, Canada, and the United States to the operating rooms of Nairobi and Dar es Salaam — this is women for women, in its most powerful form.

To learn more or deepen your support, please click here 

With gratitude, The Team at Reconstructing Women International