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Introduction: The prevalence of digestive diseases seems to be high in African countries. Nonetheless, the human and material resources are scarce. The aim of the Portuguese volunteering project described in this report was to develop the area of digestive endoscopy in Sao Tome and Principe, a lower-middle-income country in Africa. Methods and Results: Beginning by assessing the local needs and available resources and managing immediate issues related to this field, we aimed to provide the tools necessary to improve gastroenterological and endoscopic care in the country. The first step included training of the local teams, through the development and accomplishment of an adapted curriculum for a 3-year medical gastroenterological fellowship and a short-term nursing fellowship, both in Portugal, and the organization of regular gastroenterological and endoscopic theoretical and practical sessions in Sao Tome and Principe. Secondly, the endoscopy facilities of the Unit were significantly optimized. Thirdly, a web platform was designed to provide telemedicine incorporating real-time endoscopic imaging available remotely. Discussion: Through these sequential steps achieved in collaboration with Portuguese and local teams, this 5-year project provided the basis for Gastroenterology care in this country. At the present time, Sao Tome and Principe has an autonomous, efficient and skilled team and unit for approaching patients with digestive diseases needing endoscopic procedures.

A foreign body can be intentionally or accidentally ingested. Timing of endoscopy relies on foreign body shape and size, location in gastrointestinal tract, patient's clinical conditions, occurrence of symptoms or onset of complications. In this short case, we present a middle age woman, who accidentally swallowed a portion of a nasopharyngeal swab half‐broken during a diagnostic test for SARS‐CoV‐2. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was promptly performed to prevent the swab from crossing the pylorus leading to serious complications and, therefore, risk of surgical intervention. The broken nasopharyngeal swab was detected in the gastric body, and immediately removed with a foreign body forceps. Our hospital performs many nasopharyngeal swabs and to our knowledge, this is only the second reported swab ingestion during SARS‐CoV‐2 test. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.