When David Kpakiwa thinks about the surgical need in his home country of Sierra Leone, he gets emotional. 

It’s not just because he cares about his countrymen and women. 

It’s because for him, this issue hits close to home. 

“When I was a kid, my mom got sick and she needed surgery,” he said. “But in our community, they could not provide that.” 

David’s mother would have to leave their home in the Kono District to find treatment, but the travel was too expensive. David was young, but he carried a lot of responsibility as a provider for his family. He began supporting his family at the age of 8, working long hours on a farm to bring home money to his mother. 

“I spent a lot of time looking at my mom’s suffering,” he said. 

Although she was finally able to get the help she needed, David never forgot the experience. 

“The memories are there,” he said. “They’re fresh.” 

David’s family is not unique among Sierra Leoneans. There are fewer than three surgeons for every 100,000 people in the population, but those surgeons are distributed unequally across the country. That means surgical care is inaccessible to the majority of people. Estimates of the unmet surgical need in Sierra Leone reach as high as 91%. 

David’s mother was just one of those people who couldn’t access the care she desperately needed – leaving a lasting impact on those who loved her most. That’s why now, years later, as David prepares the way for the Global Mercy™ to arrive in Freetown, Sierra Leone, he takes his job personally.