Interested in Helping?

 

Here's how you can help:

1) Become a subscriber to the PAACS news bulletins (they're free), and pray for the organization's needs. Our news bulletins go out every month. You can receive them either by snail mail or e-mail. Contact gerald.swim@paacs.net if you wish to receive them.
 
2) Support a resident in training.

 

Not all African doctors wishing to train to become surgeons can find a mission sponsor to fully support them during their training. The hospitals that undertake to train surgeons already carry heavy financial burdens and are responsible to provide fully furnished housing, health care, water and electricity for the residents they agree to train.

 

The PAACS desires to enable every qualified African doctor who wants to serve Jesus Christ through surgery to get the training he or she needs. For that reason, the PAACS has established a scholarship fund for residents in need of financial help. For as little as $9,400, you can support the salary for a married African surgery resident for an entire year. You can provide educational support for any resident for $4,000 a year. Total support can be provided for just $16,000 a year.

 

Tax-deductible gifts marked PAACS may be given directly online (Be sure to write “PAACS” in the comment box” or by mailing your contribution to PAACS, P.O. Box 436886, Louisville, KY 40253. You can also send your contribution to CMDA, P.O. Box 7500, Bristol, TN 37621. Make your check payable to PAACS.

 

3) Become a short-term, visiting faculty member at one of our training centers.

 

If you are a board-certified surgeon and a serious follower of Jesus Christ, you could come to one of our training centers for two weeks to two months or more to teach our residents. You would be asked to provide two to four lectures a week for the residents and work with them in the operating room in the area of your specialty. If you are interested in doing this, contact Dr. David Thompson in Gabon at paacsdirectorafrica@gmail.com or Gerald Swim, Administrative Officer at gerald.swim@paacs.net.

 

4) Commit at least five years and become a Program Director or an Assistant Program Director:

 

We have at least six programs that could open tomorrow – if there was someone who is a board-certified surgeon, a serious follower of Jesus Christ and willing to serve as a program director. If you are interested in doing this, contact Dr Bruce Steffes (ceo@paacs.net) or Dr. David Thompson (paacsdirectorafrica@gmail.com). This is a very effective way to leave a legacy that could affect a nation.

 

Specific needs for the coming year:

PAACS provides salaries for the residents ($9,400 - $16,000 per year for a married resident with children depending on the country and the local economy) and covers travel to specialty rotations, travel to Christian medical conferences in Africa, books and other services for the residents (an average additional $4,000 per year per resident). To train our 26 residents this year (a good sized residency even in the US), the total budget for PAACS 2006 - 2007 is approximately $405,000. This means we can completely train a resident for about $16,000 per person. Another way to look at this is that for the price of keeping one American surgeon on the field for a year, we can train five or six African surgeons per year – and they will stay for a lifetime. This is a great bargain. Curriculum support, testing for self-assessment and certification, fundraising, and recruitment are other major expenditures of the administration. PAACS has several needs for funds for the upcoming year:

 

• Small to medium projects:
  • $300 for a Pediatric Surgery textbook (8 needed)
  • $1,500 - Average cost of a resident’s rotation for specialty training
  • $1,500 - Booth and materials at Global Health Missions Conference this November
  • $2,000 - Annual PAACS meeting and Friends of PAACS Dinner
  • $2,600 - New textbooks (Bailey and Love’s “Short Practice of Surgery”) for all residents and program directors
  • Support for a resident in W. Africa
    • Single - $392/mo - $4,704/yr
    • Married without children - $450/mo - $5,400/yr
    • Married with children - $784/mo - $9,408/yr

• Large to very large projects:

  • $16,000 – Cost of bringing all nine PAACS grads to the PAACS Principles of Surgery Conference at Brackenhurst, Kenya, in January
  • $15,900 – Annual support per resident in Kenya ($1325/mo)
  • Required capital improvements for hospitals opening a PAACS Training Program - $300,000
  • Resident housing needs for all PAACS training facilities - $1,600,000 (can be broken down to the cost of building housing for a specific training program – approximately $40,000 per unit)