Recently featured in the May-July 2013 edition of ISAPS News, ISAPS-LEAP Surgical Relief Teams (SRT) seeks to better integrate surgical care into the disaster relief toolkit. As a joint collaboration between the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and LEAP Foundation, SRT benefits from access to ISAPS’ membership base of more than 2200 plastic and reconstructive surgeons from 93 countries as well as from LEAP’s 23 years of experience recruiting and coordinating short-term elective medical mission trips. SRT exists to train, equip, connect and deploy highly skilled plastic and reconstructive surgeons for short-term disaster relief medical missions. As a global platform for surgical care, SRT seeks to place teams on the ground within the first week of a mass casualty incident.
In response to the refugee crisis resulting from the ongoing Syrian conflict, SRT is currently assembling teams of surgical volunteers for one-week deployments to work with partnering hospitals in Amman, Jordan, starting October 26th. Those interested to serve should complete the Disaster Relief Medical Volunteer form. SRT has already received a number of responses from ISAPS members as well as LEAP-affiliated medical volunteers. We will be contacting volunteers next week to request preferred dates of service in order to begin scheduling trips for Fall and Winter.
As SRT moves forward to address the needs of wounded Syrian refugees living in Jordan and other neighboring countries, we want you to stay informed of team developments and the issues that impact the work we seek to do. The easiest way to do that is to follow SurgicalReliefTeams on Twitter @ISAPSLEAP_SRT. If you have any further questions about upcoming deployment plans, please feel free to contract Ryan Snyder Thompson (Director of International Disaster Relief) at ryansnyderthompson@leap-foundation.org.