KELOWNA- A Kelowna doctor and his son are gearing up for the trip of a lifetime.
David and Matthew Williamson will be travelling to Ethiopia to put smiles on the face of cleft palate and burn victims next month.
The plastic surgeon and his son are heading to the city of Bahar Dar to provide life-changing procedures for those in need.
The duo will be part of a team of doctors that will be doing up to 80 burn repair treatments per-day on residents, predominantly children, who have gotten too close to the open flames of Ethiopian cooking pits.
“I’ve had a lot of medical training over the years and it’s an opportunity to give back and to just help out,” says Dr. Williamson. “It’s an incredible life experience.”
The Williamsons will be taking part in the humanitarian mission with Stan Valnicek, who has been to the country to volunteer his plastic surgery expertise before. He says serving a city of almost 20 million is tiring, but more rewarding than anything he’s ever done.
“We see burn injuries and contractions there that you would never see on this continent; the number of untreated burns is in the thousands. So if you didn’t do this stuff it’d be a long time before somebody came along and gave (citizens) a chance to have this surgery,” he says. “You really feel like you’re making a huge difference…it’s super exciting!”
The trip, which is sponsored by a non-profit organization called Restor, aims to not only aid injured Ethiopians, but to also educate locals on ways they can help long after the Kelowna doctors are gone.
The team leaves town on April 3rd.
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