About SELAM Foundation

Our organization is a humanitarian and educational non profit foundation which sponsors medical service missions to communities in need. SELAM is unique in that the provision of quality medical care and treatment is coupled with a secondary focus, the mentorship and participation of a diverse group of racially and socio-economically underrepresented youth at the high school and college level. The goal is to provide meaningful life-transforming service learning experiences that will inspire these youth towards medical careers.

PHOTOS FROM ETHIOPIA TRIP

To view photos of our trip to Ethiopia - Click Here

Dear Friends of SELAM Foundation

Welcome to our web site. As with our young organization, this web site is evolving and expanding on a daily basis. In the days to come, we hope to share with you a fuller description of who we are and what we will be doing in the weeks, months and years to follow. We thank you for your interest and support.

Ethiopia Trip Report And Updates!!!Click Here

Our First Newsletter Can Be Accessed Here Click Here

Our Mission

The Mission of SELAM Foundation is

To Empower Youth and Improve Global Health Through Mentorship, Training and Service

To accomplish our mission our intention is as follows:

To create and implement life transforming service learning opportunities for socio-economically deprived and underrepresented youth.

To awaken and nurture an interest in a medical services career in such youth.

To foster the confidence and skill necessary for fulfillment of that interest through mentorship and training.

To provide high quality specialized and affordable medical service to individuals and families in underserved areas.

To educate and train physicians and other health care professionals in under-developed countries in state of the art skills and techniques.

Our Process

We identify emotionally mature and dedicated high school and college students from socio-economically challenged and ethnically underrepresented communities who have the personal interest and academic potential to pursue careers in the health professions.

We provide a structured and challenging 12 week training to identified students in areas of international public health, basic diagnostic, well care, hospital and surgical procedures, as well as in the history and society of the host countries in preparation for two or three week medical missions in a developing country.

We take this group of students on a medical mission as active partners in a team of extraordinarily skilled and motivated surgeons, doctors, medical students and nurses to provide basic yet life transforming surgical interventions and basic medical care to underserved international communities.

Our First Year

July 1, 2006

Teaching: Working with our educational partners, we will identify a set of approximately 10 interested high school, college or post-graduate students who have the requisite potential, enthusiasm, commitment and emotional maturity to partake on this life transforming adventure.

Over the next 12 weeks, these students will study, learn and train in areas of international public health, first aid, surgical assistance, bandaging and dressing wounds, sterilization of surgical instruments, taking blood pressure and temperature, etc. Students will also study about the social structure, culture, language, and global relationships of the country to be visited.

Mentoring: Through close contact with our racially and ethnically diverse team of medical professionals, doctors and nurses, our students will be mentored in the challenging mission of achieving their own limitless potential. These mentoring relationships are fostered and developed over time. The goal is to support a "pipeline" of achievement, leading students from high school to and through college, on to graduate schools in the health sciences and further through the challenges of professional life.

Leadership: Upon return from the medical mission, students will be required to formulate their experiences into presentations to be made to their schools, churches and community groups including power point, video, public speaking, etc. They will also commit to giving back to their communities in other ways and becoming mentors to future program participants.

October 1, 2006

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Our first trip will be to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the first two weeks of October 2006. Our medical directors for this trip will be SELAM Board members Dr. William Lewis and Dr. Seble Fisseha. The program will have three medical rotations, in Otolaryngology, Public Health and Pediatrics.

Surgical Rotation: Dr. Lewis will lead the surgical portion of the trip. Working with our medical partners from Global ENT Outreach and ENHAPA (Ethiopian North American Health Professionals Association), Dr. Lewis will focus on the removal of glomus tumors, middle ear surgery and other related procedures. SELAM students will actively participate in the surgical process, pre and post surgical care, and will observe and assist in surgery as appropriate.

Pediatrics: Led by Dr. Fisseha, the students will be working at orhpanages and clinics in Addis Ababa including the AHOPE orphange and Barlow House Clinic providing AIDS/HIV treatment, examinations, well care and other therapies.

Public Health: The entire team will also be touring a variety of established International Public Health providers in Addis Ababa and select smaller cities and rural areas. We will meet with "on the ground leadership" of these facilities to gain a better understanding of the opportunities, challenges and rewards of such work.

2007
Our second trip which previously was planned for the Philippines in January 2007 has been postponed. As we continue to incorporate the lessons learned from our successful trip to Ethiopia, we are taking time to fully assess the best way to leverage our resources.

Check here for information or join our email list by sending us an email at newsletter@selamfoundation.org.

The Future

Future trips are being developed and planned for a variety of locations in Central and South America, Africa (return trips to Ethiopia as well as Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and other countries) as well as Asia.

What We Stand For

SERVICE

EXPERIENCE

LEARNING

ACTION

MEDICINE