Dr Andinet Beza is an Ethopian General and Paediatric Surgeon who has joined the team by completing his Rolls Royce Paediatric Surgical Oncology fellowship program at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital & Wits University through Surgeons for Little Lives please read through to get more about his experience so far!
Dr Andinet Beza writes:
My Name is Andinet Beza an Ethiopian General and Paediatric Surgeon currently an active staff of the University of Gondar, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Gondar, Ethiopia. I performed both my undergraduate and post graduate studies at the University of Gondar. My General Surgery qualification was completed at this same university in 2012 and I did my subspecialty in Paediatric Surgery at the Indira Ghandhi Institute of Child Health in Bangalore, India and started working as a consultant surgeon in 2017. I am an active member of the Surgical Society of Ethiopia (SSE), the Association of Ethiopian Paediatric Surgeons (AEPS), the Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery (GICS), and the multidisciplinary tumor board team at my university.
I am currently completing the Rolls Royce Paediatric Surgical Oncology Fellowship at Chris Hanni Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH) at the University of the Witwatersrand, this through the Surgeons for Little Lives Charity.
I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for the opportunity as the first recipient of this prestigious Paediatric Surgical Oncology Fellowship, this at the biggest hospital in Africa. I started this fellowship in September of last year and I am actively engaged in the department’s academic, clinical and research activities.
Though I have been engaged in caring for paediatric patients full time back home, the experience here in Johannesburg has helped me to see caring for sick children in a different light.
As the burden of childhood cancer is increasing worldwide and with the scarcity of human resources in the field of pediatric surgical oncology, the start of this fellowship program will impact the care and outcome of these patients immensely, this spread through the training of surgeons like me, but impacting many thousands of deserving children.
The hospitality of the community at CHBAH and the level of expertise of the medical staff working here is heartwarming. My experience here is truly different from the few places I had a chance to work in previously, this due to the diversity of the working group and always making patient care first, keeping differences aside.
As the days of my study are rushing, I can only prepare myself for the days and years ahead and be ready to give back to the community back home or wherever my helping hands are needed.
Again, thank you, and God bless everyone involved in making this program a reality and looking forward to seeing more of us being trained and paying it forward.
