RACS and its Fellows: a contribution to sustainable healthcare improvement in South East Asia.

The question of whether small non-government organizations with comparatively small budgets can make a substantial contribution to sustainable improvement in health care in low- and middle-income countries is crucial to funding global surgical projects. The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and its Fellows have partnered with local organizations and clinicians to deliver a wide range of projects in South East Asia. These projects have proved sustainable and have increased healthcare capacity in these nations. This provides strong evidence that small non-government organizations such as the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons can make a major contribution to global surgeryI.