Team LA is a dedicated group of medical professionals from Los Angeles led by Kenyan native and nurse Ian Otinga. We will head on our first mission to Ian's hometown of Kakamega, Kenya in October 2025 to provide free, life-changing medical care to patients in need of reconstructive and head and neck surgeries. Team LA will also help establish a base in Kakamega for Operation International for future humanitarian work there.

Want to join us in making a difference? Any donation will help us provide life-changing and life-saving care to patients who are in dire need for help. Thank you in advance for your contribution to this cause, your support means so much to our team. Please note: each team member has a specific fundraising goal, if your team member has already hit their goal, consider spreading the love to another of our volunteers!

More About Team LA:

Team LA was founded in 2025 by Ian Otinga, a native of Kenya who immigrated to the USA and studied to become a nurse. In 2024, Ian assumed the position of Country Coordinator for Operation International's work in Kenya where he successfully organized missions for several of our teams, including Team Chicago, Team DC, and Team Restore Vision. These missions have had a life-changing impact on his home country. With Ian's coordination, OI's Restore Vision team completed 247 life-changing eye surgeries, Team Chicago completed 94 surgeries, and Team DC provided 107 surgeries for those in need. To find out more about Ian's new dedicated team, Team LA, please read below or click here.

Team LA includes 13 members from the Los Angeles area. The team is made up of three doctors, six nurses, two CRNAs, and three surgical technologists.

More About Operation International:

Operation International is a secular, non-political, humanitarian organization founded in 1996 by Medhat Allam, MD; Ravi Kothuru, MD; and Robert Mineo, CRNA under the original name of International Surgical Mission Support. The founders aspired to offer free medical care to children and adults suffering from the lack of basic health care in poor countries.

In our quest to advance human rights ideas, Operation International provides free medical care to people in need — regardless of gender, cultural, ethnic, political or religious affiliations. To ensure that our efforts impact underserved communities for years to come, we also offer education and training to local health care workers during each of our medical missions, as well as improve hospitals’ infrastructure through equipment donation.

Team NY, the first Operation International team, made its maiden mission to Haiti in 1997, where the founders of the organization witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of poverty and inadequate medical care.

Since the beginning, our teams of doctors, clinicians, nurses, and aides have expanded to include over 200 medical professionals in multiple Chapters located throughout the United States, the UK, and Hong Kong.

In our many medical missions to date, we have directly impacted the lives of thousands of people by performing life-saving and life-changing surgeries including cancer surgeries, sight restoration surgeries, burn reconstructive surgeries, corrective surgeries for congenital anomalies such as clubfoot and cleft palate, and obstetric and gynecological surgeries.

Help Bring Life-Changing Medical Care to Kenya

Operation International's Team LA is heading on their inaugural mission in October

Team Members