The Rahima Dawood Oration delivered in Harare, Zimbabwe on 2nd December 2004: The paediatric surgeon in Africa: Luxury or necessity

Being elected as the Rahima Dawood Traveling Fellow for 2004 has been a great honour and privilege. It has also been great fun and an enhancing experience. I am proud to have been the first surgeon from south of the Limpopo to be so honoured and to be only the second Paediatric Surgeon elected to this Fellowship. I am indebted to the Council of the Association of Surgeons of East Africa, the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and the Rahima Dawood Trustees for giving me this opportunity to visit colleagues and friends throughout the region. To witness their achievements in a resource-constrained environment has been humbling. I am, of course, equally indebted to colleagues in Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe who, without exception, made me feel welcome and who took time and trouble to share their experience with me