Spine surgery and spine care outreach you can join: deformity missions, teaching posts at partner hospitals, long-term clinical roles, and ways to help from home. Each entry links to the organiser's own page.
| Date | Programme | Status | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7–14 Nov 2026 | Global Spine Outreach, Cali, Colombia | Starts 7 Nov 2026 | Paediatric deformity |
| 23–30 Jan 2027 | Global Spine Outreach, Chihuahua, Mexico | Scheduled | Paediatric deformity |
| 6–13 Feb 2027 | Global Spine Outreach, Joinville, Brazil | Scheduled | Paediatric deformity |
| Feb 2027 | Kisumu Neuroscience Initiative neuro camp and symposium, Kenya | Forecast | Brain and spine, adult and paediatric |
| 13–20 Mar 2027 | Global Spine Outreach, Monterrey, Mexico | Scheduled | Paediatric deformity |
| Rolling | Health Volunteers Overseas, orthopaedic teaching sites | Open | Teaching; approval can take months |
GSO publishes further 2027 dates for all four sites. "Forecast" means the date follows the previous pattern (the 2026 Kisumu camp ran 16–20 February) and is not yet announced.
Week-long visits by a full team (surgeons, anaesthesia, neuromonitoring, nursing) to a partner hospital. Most are paediatric and adolescent deformity.
Free surgery for children with severe deformity, run alongside local surgeons at four recurring sites in Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. GSO reviewed 56 consecutive missions from 2013 to 2024 and published its model for safe, repeatable trips in Spine Deformity (April 2026). Volunteers range from surgeons to bilingual translators.
Founded by Oheneba Boachie-Adjei in 1998, now a full hospital that receives severe and neglected deformity from across West and East Africa. More than 250 international volunteers have worked there. Besides surgeons, it asks for nursing, physiotherapy, orthotics, neuromonitoring, physiatry, research and management help.
The volunteer page's application link currently points to an archived form. Contact the foundation directly (info@focosus.org).
Annual surgical camps in Kolkata since 2006, treating children from India, Nepal and Bangladesh, with a deformity workshop and the Kolkata Spine Deformity Conference attached. Founded by two surgeons who met as fellows at the Centre for Spinal Studies in Nottingham. UK teams from Norwich have joined recent camps.
No current official website found; past participants are the best route.
SpineHope (Austin, USA): two to four paediatric missions a year in Latin America, plus a hub programme that brings children to Texas for surgery; works closely with Medtronic. World Spine Outreach with Fundación Mariposa: a long-running scoliosis mission in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, with more than 800 patients treated at one site. Both recruit mainly through existing team members.
Placements of two weeks to several months, built around training residents and supporting local surgeons. Mostly neurosurgery or general orthopaedics, with spine as part of the work.
Since 1969, FIENS has sent neurosurgeons to partner programmes to teach and help set up residencies. Sites span Africa, Asia and Latin America, and FIENS also runs resident boot camps (Manila in December 2025). It coordinates volunteers for the Kisumu camps.
Neurosurgery, Education and Development built the first neurosurgical centre in Zanzibar at Mnazi Mmoja Hospital in 2014, with a residency linked to COSECSA. Spanish teams of neurosurgeons, orthopaedic surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses rotate through; a physiotherapy and neurorehabilitation programme has started.
Started in 2017 by Kisumu-born neurosurgeons working in the USA. Camps at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital have done more than 550 operations. Kisumu had no neurosurgeon when it began and now has four. A German–Kenyan team ran a camp in late 2025.
Teaching placements with residents and faculty at Mulago (Kampala), KCMC (Moshi, also virtual), Komfo Anokye (Kumasi) and Costa Rica's social-security hospitals. Spine is not a listed priority, but subspecialists are requested and retired surgeons are accepted.
Fracture-care education in 28 sub-Saharan African and 8 Asian countries, run with local faculty. Trauma rather than elective spine, but its Malawi initiative trained two spine surgeons. Experienced AO faculty can volunteer to teach.
Matches UK and Irish experts with centres abroad for virtual or in-person teaching, twins units, arranges UK observerships, and funds exchange fellowships in both directions. Linked to the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Acquired Brain and Spine Injury.
For physiotherapists, chiropractors, rehabilitation physicians and spinal cord injury teams, and for surgeons who want a longer commitment.
Founded by Scott Haldeman in 2008. Runs evidence-based primary spine care clinics in Botswana and the Dominican Republic, with earlier projects in Ghana and India. It convened the Global Spine Care Initiative, published in the European Spine Journal in 2018.
Ethiopia's first paediatric spine programme, at the Tebow Spine Center in Addis Ababa, did 138 complex spine operations in its 2025 financial year and is training the country's first Ethiopian spine surgeons. CURE has advertised for an experienced paediatric spine surgeon, and visiting surgeons have joined for neuromonitoring and deformity cases. CURE is a Christian organisation.
Members in 87 countries. Runs regional symposia, a WHO partnership on spinal cord injury services in low-resource settings, and the free e-learning platform elearnSCI. Affiliated networks such as the African SCI Network welcome teaching input.
Not every contribution needs a flight. Hosting a visiting surgeon or teaching remotely can last longer than a single mission.
A free matching platform where surgeons and hospitals post what they can offer and what they need. Started in paediatric neurosurgery and now covers orthopaedics and other specialties in over 100 countries.
The former Operation Giving Back, now a volunteer and partnership programme with an interest form for surgeons.
The SRS Global Outreach fellowships send surgeons from under-served regions to established centres for three to six weeks, and SRS keeps a call for volunteer host sites. HVO and FIENS also fund trainees from partner sites. See our Fellowships & Observerships section for dates.
FOCOS and GSO take donations for individual operations, and FOCOS accepts in-kind equipment. Watsi crowdfunds individual scoliosis operations at partner hospitals such as Children's Surgical Centre in Cambodia.
Industry support is common in this field. SpineHope works with Medtronic, the NuVasive Spine Foundation has run missions with GSO, and FIENS boot camps are supported by Medtronic. We list programmes neutrally and name the partner where we know it.
Spinal Frontiers is published by NSpine Limited, registered in England and Wales (company no. 08362634), 14 Park Row, Nottingham NG1 6GR, United Kingdom. Every item is summarised in our own words and links to its original source. Listings are a selection made at NSpine's editorial discretion and are not exhaustive; inclusion is not an endorsement, and omission implies nothing. Sponsors and advertisers have no influence on what we cover. Nothing here is medical, legal or financial advice. Spotted an error or a broken link? Email spinalfrontiers@nspine.com, or use the feedback page.
Spinal Frontiers is a trademark of NSpine GmbH.
Information only, summarised from third-party sources: not medical, legal, regulatory or financial advice. Full disclaimer.
© 2013 – 2026 NSpine Limited. Privacy notice.
Spinal FrontiersPowered by NSpine