Sheba Surgical Mission Helps Deliver Surgeries to Togo’s Rural Communities
Sheba Medical Center surgical teams conducted a high-impact humanitarian mission in Togo, West Africa, delivering approximately 100 hernia surgeries to underprivileged agricultural communities at Kpalimé Hospital Center from February 1-10.
Under President Faure Gnassingbé’s patronage, this partnership with Togo’s Plateaux Region Governorate and Central Directorate of the Armed Forces Health Service (DCSSA) combined free consultations, procedures for hernias, lipomas, and synovial cysts, and hands-on training for local practitioners.
Addressing Critical Rural Health Needs
The mission targeted Togo’s agricultural workers suffering hernia-related pain and functional limitations from intensive field labor, conditions that threaten livelihoods between harvest seasons. Without intervention, patients endure prolonged suffering that prevents farming and family support.
Sheba’s team, surgeons Imri Amiel and Assaf Dori, anesthesiologist Aner Daum, and nurse Atef Hijazi, worked alongside Togolese colleagues to provide postoperative monitoring and knowledge transfer, ensuring sustained care continuity.
Sheba’s Global Expertise Meets Togo’s Priorities
Ranked among Newsweek’s World’s Top 10 Hospitals, Sheba brought its world-class surgical expertise, training methodology, and international mission experience. This initiative followed a scouting mission led by Dr. Shachar Shapira six months prior, responding to local requests for hernia surgical support through Sheba’s Humanitarian and Disaster Response Center.
The collaboration aligned elite surgical deployment with capacity building, co-developing workflows, sharing intraoperative decisions, and establishing sustainable postoperative protocols for local teams.
Sustainable Impact Through Partnership
Beyond immediate surgical relief, the mission strengthened Togo’s surgical infrastructure through real-time collaboration with local medical professionals and state leadership. This model advances equitable healthcare access for rural populations while positioning Sheba as a trusted partner for health systems facing geographic challenges.
By restoring farmers’ productivity, the partnership links clinical intervention to economic resilience, demonstrating medicine’s power to catalyze community prosperity through excellence and compassion.
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