The Emory University Physician Assistant Program has teamed up with the South West Georgia (SOWEGA) Medical Mission Team in Albany, GA to provide a unique opportunity for physician assistant students: completing a two week rotation in international medicine in Kerala, India. The SOWEGA team has grown from physicians joining together with a professor from Albany State University whose brother was Bishop at the facilities 25 years ago in Kerala, India, where this rotation is based.

The main hospital is situated in the rural mountainous region and has grown from a small two story building, a relic from British missionary days, to a complex incorporating a hospital, supporting clinics and a school of medicine and nursing. During the rotation team members are given the opportunity to work in different areas of medicine including internal medicine, pediatrics, emergency medicine, and surgery (the availability of these areas of study varies based on the physicians who accompany the team each year). Students work alongside other medical providers from the United States and India to assist with medical care at the CSI Hospital in Kerakonam and to the Center for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled (formerly the Polio Children’s Home) in Trivandrum. Much of the costs associated with the rotation provide funding for further development of the medical facilities and programs in Kerala.

“I have never been so received by such friendly and grateful people who want to give to others. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to travel abroad and practice medicine in an international setting. It has shaped my life and steered me toward the practice of rural medicine in an international setting.”

                                       -Helen Putnam, class of 2006