Help IVU's Team purchase equipment for our partners in Ghana

Dear Friends of IVUmed,

We are writing to you today on behalf of IVUmed, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving urological care in underserved regions around the world through education and training.

We are reaching out to request your support for an urgent need at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, Ghana, where we conduct biannual surgical workshops.

The Need

KATH serves as a major referral center for millions of people across Ghana and neighboring countries. Our surgical workshops provide hands-on training to local urologists and urology residents. However, to make this training truly impactful, we need a resectoscope—a specialized surgical instrument essential for treating conditions such as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and bladder tumors.

During our three years working with KATH, we have witnessed firsthand the impact of a critical equipment shortage. Local urologists are fully capable of mastering endoscopic procedures, but without access to resectoscopes, they cannot develop the hands-on expertise their patients desperately need. Procedures we consider routine in the US—endoscopic tumor staging, transurethral resections—remain out of reach for these skilled surgeons.

The consequences are significant: without endoscopic staging, oncologic treatment planning suffers, and patients undergo unnecessarily invasive open procedures when minimally invasive options should be available. While we travel to teach advanced open surgical techniques, providing training in these foundational endoscopic skills could deliver far greater impact for the community. Perhaps most importantly, equipping residents with these capabilities today will create a multiplier effect that transforms urological care for generations to come.

The Impact of Your Gift

Your donation will directly support the purchase of a resectoscope that will:

• Enable our workshop participants including local urology residents, to gain practical, hands-on experience with modern endoscopic techniques
• Remain at KATH after the workshop, serving thousands of patients for years to come
• Empower local surgeons to train future generations of urologists in their own community

Join Us in Making a Difference

IVUmed's model is built on sustainability and long-term impact. Every piece of equipment we provide, every surgeon we train, creates a ripple effect that transforms entire healthcare systems. Your contribution to this project will touch countless lives—not just during our workshop, but for decades to come.

We invite you to be part of this life-changing work. Donations of any amount are deeply appreciated and tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.

To make your contribution, please use the donation form on this page, visit www.ivumed.org or contact us at info@ivumed.org. 

Thank you for considering this request. Together, we can bring world-class urological care to communities that need it most.

With gratitude and hope,

International Volunteers in Urology (IVU or IVUmed) is dedicated to making quality urological care available worldwide. We provide medical and surgical training to local doctors and nurses and care to thousands of children and adults in underserved communities worldwide.

Since 1995, IVU has partnered with teaching hospitals in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean to equip local doctors and nurses with the skills they need to serve their communities. Specialized urologic care is extremely limited in low-resource areas of the world. IVU organizes surgical workshops led by experts in their fields, such as pediatric and reconstructive urology, women’s health, and oncology, who volunteer their time and funds to train their host colleagues and serve hundreds of children and adults each year.