From Tenwek to Burundi: A Commitment to Care Where It Is Needed

Some of the most important decisions in healthcare begin with a simple question: where can I be useful?

Dr. Atnafu Asha, a family physician from Tenwek Hospital in Kenya, and his wife, Netsanet Tesfaye, have volunteered to serve in Burundi through World Gospel Mission (WGM). Dr. Asha also serves as a CME director for Primary54.

For the Primary54 community, this is a story worth sharing. It brings the conversation about access to care down to a human scale: a physician, a family, and a willingness to serve across borders.

Why this matters to primary care

A child with fever. A pregnant woman who needs assessment. A patient returning for blood-pressure review. A family trying to understand an illness and decide what to do next.

These are the ordinary encounters around which primary care is built. They require clinical skill, sound judgement and the ability to see the patient within a household and community.

Family medicine brings breadth and continuity to this work. In district hospitals, family physicians can help connect outpatient care, inpatient treatment, emergency assessment and referral. Their contribution can also extend to teaching colleagues and improving how services function.

Dr. Atnafu’s planned move offers an opportunity to recognise that expertise—and to consider how we support the people who bring it to underserved communities.

Commitment needs practical support

It is easy to celebrate a clinician’s willingness to go. The harder task is to help them stay, work well and build something that lasts.

Service should be matched by reliable supplies, safe working conditions, clinical supervision, continuing education and clear referral pathways. Clinicians also need rest, professional companionship and support for their families.

Commitment cannot replace these things.

Hospitals, training institutions, professional networks, funders and colleagues all have a contribution to make. A doctor in a demanding placement should be able to seek advice on a difficult case, keep learning and help develop the team around them.

Working alongside local expertise

Cross-border service works best through partnership with the clinicians and communities already there.

Local teams understand the language, relationships, patient priorities and daily realities of their health system. Professionals joining them must be willing to listen and learn.

Shared decisions, practical teaching and respectful collaboration can help strengthen services over time. The aim should be a stronger team and more dependable care for patients.

These are the principles through which Primary54 understands the wider significance of this story.

What can the rest of us do?

Not every clinician can move to another country. Service also happens in the hospital where you already work.

It may mean mentoring a junior colleague, improving a handover, organising a useful teaching session or helping a remote team obtain clinical advice.

Dr. Atnafu and Netsanet’s decision invites us to consider our own contribution. Where are our skills most useful? Which colleagues need support? What would make good care more dependable for the communities we serve?

Primary54 celebrates their willingness to serve. We hope their story encourages practical solidarity across Africa’s primary care community.