Dear friends and supporters:

Despite war and COVID, we are happy to report that we have had a successful year. 

  • We received over 820 new spine deformity patients! 

  • We have sent 38 youths to FOCOS Hospital in Accra, Ghana for traction and surgery. 

  • We had missions of Dr. Theodore Belanger from Dallas who operated at the MCM Korean Christian Medical Center, as well as our FOCOS partners from Ghana. 

  • We now have an Ethiopian orthopedic surgeon and neurosurgeon on staff. 

  • We have made 5 trips to the countryside for education and spine screening. Over 500 health professionals have participated in our educational activities. 5 doctors and nurses were sent to Ghana for training. 

  • We held Ethiopia’s first Spine Summit. This raised the issue of spine deformity to a national level. To our surprise, the Ministry of Health gave me a commendation for my decades of work, as well as a robe and crown!

  • We operated on 145 spine patients in Ethiopia and Ghana. 

Our goals: to continue this momentum, with a concentration on training Ethiopians so that many of our patients can be treated inside Ethiopia, and a national spine center can be created. 

Please help! Your donations can truly transform young lives. 

With gratitude,

        Rick

Rick Hodes, MD and the JDC-Ethiopia Spine Team