The patients of the community of Maruku, Tanzania have a plethora of unmet health care needs. Chief among them is access to orthopedic surgery for joint restoration surgery. It’s estimated that less than 10% of the population of this entire region of Northern Tanzania, in need of this surgery, will receive it. Women Orthopaedist Global Outreach (WOGO) has an answer. Since 2009, this amazing group of gifted surgeons and health care professionals have been traveling the globe performing life improving joint replacement surgeries. The WOGO surgeons partner with marginalized rural communities, perform pre-trip sessions with patients, local surgeons, and healthcare professionals to coordinate patient and surgical logistical details.

WOGO is planning their mission trip for 2025 to return to Arusha Lutheran Medical Center (ALMC) in Arusha, Tanzania. They anticipate successfully reconstructing and rehabilitating ~ 50 knees. AHEAD, Inc. Incorporated is partnering with WOGO-Arusha Mission Project Medical Director and friend of AHEAD, Rinelda Horton, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon and her WOGO team to bring patients from Maruku and the Bukoba District to Arusha for total joint reconstruction. The WOGO care treatment/recovery arm of this partnership is free. Maruku, however is not close to Arusha, it is 361 miles away, and the patients will not have the resources to afford the travel cost, nor any pre-testing costs for labs, X-rays or incidental costs. Financial sponsorships and support from AHEAD, Inc., is needed to provide grants that will cover surgical candidate identification, preoperative testing and travel of Maruku patients to and from Arusha, and provide for an AHEAD/Maruku designated patient liaison/care coordinator for the Maruku patients.

We ask that you partner with AHEAD, Inc., and our friends at WOGO and help transform lives in Maruku, Tanzania by reducing the burden of arthritis and disability through total joint reconstruction. Simply put, the more you give, the more knees we can reconstruct. When you donate to AHEAD, Inc., to our Maruku/Bukoba to Arusha Patient Total Knee Replacement (TKA) Project-Tanzania 2024-2025 or to any of our other lifesaving programs, you’re improving the life of an individual and the human conditions of a community, and ultimately, the future we share. Click below to donate