CSI is honored to be a MARCO Promos Difference Maker and to receive this $1,000 in-kind contribution!Congratulations to Children's Surgery International for being this week’s Difference Maker winner!
They will receive $1000 worth of promo products to help promote their worthy cause!
Check in the comments to learn more about them!
#MARCODifferenceMakers
Yesterday, 80 patients were screened and 45 are scheduled for surgery in the week ahead. CSI Medical Records volunteer, Mary Jo Wagner shares that screening day holds both joy and difficult reality. Moments like 9-month-old Tadlo, smiling and giggling through his screening. Or seeing Biruk again — returning for his fourth surgery, greeting our team alongside his best friend.
And then there are the hardest moments: babies who arrive too undernourished for surgery, and the painful conversations that require families to wait.
But there is real hope. Because of years of training and partnership with College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia., fewer young children now need us for ENT care. CSI’s first fellow, Dr. Kassaw Ketemaw, and his local team are providing that care themselves.
As CSI Academic Director Dr. Siva Chinnadurai reflected: “[We are] now celebrating our first fellow nearing graduation. Ten years ago, Dr. Kassaw was a student in the back of a packed room on CSI’s first trip, watching his first cleft lip surgery and quietly deciding his path. Last year, he performed over 120 independent cleft operations. Now he’s teaching the next generation and helping build the systems that will sustain this work.”
#pediatricsurgery #globalhealth #ethiopia #childrenshealth #cleftstrong
This month marks 10 years since our very first trip to Ethiopia. In addition to our long partnership with the Bahir Dar University, CSI is grateful for a decade of incredible partnership with Taitu Tour Ethiopia - they provide essential travel and logistics support, interpreters and so much more to make these trips possible! Hear from veteran partners and also our three newest team members, Alicia, Kara and Elizabeth. Today was screening day - always a busy and exciting kick-off to the week of transformative collaboration! Follow along this week and get to know some of our brave patients, their resilient families, our incredible Ethiopian colleagues and, of course, our dedicated CSI volunteers! #GlobalHealth #pediatricsurgery #changinglivesonechildatatime
Our Winter Newsletter is here!
Read reflections from CSI volunteer Emily Fox, RN, on her experience in Ethiopia, and learn the latest mission updates and program highlights.
Read and see the impact you’re part of:
childrenssurgeryintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Winter_Newsletter_2026-1.pdf
“We were very shameful about the baby's cleft before surgery, now we are proud and we feel very happy about the surgery. We would like to thank you very much.” Parent, Ethiopia
