Vulnerable populations exist in the United States and beyond. My training as an anesthesiologist and intensivist brought me to Rwanda in spring 2017 as part of the ASA's Global Humanitarian Outreach (GHO) program. Rwanda, a small, densely populated country situated in East Africa, has a population of approximately 12.5 million according to 2019 United Nations data. A landlocked country, it borders the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi. Known as the land of a thousand hills, Rwanda's fertile grounds support its agricultural sector, which forms the basis of its economic activity. Currently a low-income country, the World Bank notes that Rwanda aspires to reach middle-income country status by 2035 and high-income country status by 2050 through a series of strategic plans aimed at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
The GHO embarked on a collaboration with the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society International Education Foundation in 2006 to help build...
