Innovators in Action: Speech and Surgery Collaboration in Ethiopia and Tanzania

Comprehensive Cleft Care professionals in Africa are innovators. Traditional volunteer outreach/mission models are being replaced – new systems are required.  

With skilled local surgeons in place, addressing the need for speech therapy in their cleft patients is an important challenge. A new generation of cleft teams embrace it! 

In part one of this two-part series, host Hugh Brewster sits down with four inspiring young professionals from Ethiopia and Tanzania—two surgeons: Dr. Getaw Alamne & Dr. Francis Tegete and two speech therapists: Wedise Mekonnen & Adam Mang’ombe—who are transforming the landscape of cleft care in East Africa.     What led them to specialize in cleft? What motivates their commitment to pursue team-based care?     In part two, dive into the key challenges that CCC teams face in building new models of care and the role that collaboration plays in overcoming obstacles.