ETHIOPIA

Go Doc Go’s first project ever began in October 2014 at the University Hospital in Gondar, Ethiopia. Dr. Maggie Carpenter and Ingrid Frengle-Burke, FNP traveled to Gondar with over $10,000 in equipment and materials and trained 18 healthcare providers on VIA techniques for detecting cervical cancer. Dr. Kristen Austin, an American Ob/Gyn who was living in Gondar managed the project for Go Doc Go for the next year and returned again in June, 2016 to help with further efforts. Since that initial visit, hundreds of midwives, residents and physicians have been trained on how to perform VIA and perform treatment using both cryotherapy and LEEP. 

Go Doc Go has returned to Gondar in October 2015, June 2016 and October 2018 to bring much needed supplies and continue trainings and screenings. We hope to return to Gondar in April 2019 as we will be in in Adama, Ethiopia for a training and screening program there. The project in Gondar would not have been as successful without the sincere commitment of the Ob/Gyn department at the University of Gondar Hospital. They were clearly prepared and understood the impact this program would have on their community. 

Go Doc Go returned to Ethiopia in April 2019, making visits to the cities of Adama and Gondar. This was our first time in Adama and Dr. Maggie Carpenter presented to over 35 physicians, residents and nurses on how to screen for cervical cancer using VIA. We screened women and trained the physicians on how to treat pre-cancerous lesions using the Thermocoagulation unit that we donated to the Adama Hospital Medical College. 29 women were screened with 7 having positive results for pre-cancerous and cancerous lesions. 4 women were able to be treated with the Thermocoagulation unit while the other three women needed biopsies. We look forward to continue working with the physicians at the Adama Hospital Medical College and hope for a long partnership.We next flew to Gondar to visit the University Hospital and donate a Thermocoagulation unit. It was great to see the construction happening and the equipment that Go Doc Go has donated previously - cryotherapy, LEEP, colposcope - all being used regularly and in great condition.

In March 2024, Go Doc Go was finally able to return to Ethiopia after the civil war subsided. Though we were unable to work in Gondar, we did send supplies to help continue the screening and treatment program there. Working in partnership with the nonprofit, Grounds for Health, we travelled to Hawassa, Ethiopia for a 3 day training at the rural hospital in Aleta Wendo. We worked with 5 physicians from 4 hospitals and donated two LEEP machines and two thermal ablation units. We also donated a new thermal ablation unit to Dr. Habte Geneti for the new hospitals he is working at in Adama.