An Edinburgh-based charity has transformed the lives of almost 50,000 children in some of the world’s poorest countries after helping them access vital operations.
KidsOR’s theatres have seen thousands of children pass through their doors in the last 12 months. They often receive life-saving surgery.
David Cunningham, chief executive of KidsOR, said 2021 was the charity’s “most impactful year yet”They were “hugely excited that by the end of 2022 we will further expand access to safe surgery for children in low-resource settings with the addition of another 25 operating rooms”.
Jibril was born with an abdominal hernia. He was eventually treated at the KidsOR operating table in Kakuma refugee camp (KidsOR).
“By providing more than 3,000 pieces of specialised paediatric surgical equipment in each of our 50 operating rooms, more children are now able to access the vital life-changing or life-saving surgical care,”He stated.
The University of California San Francisco, working with data collectors in each KidsOR partner hospitals, estimated the economic benefit across the African and South American countries where the charity operates was 1.52 billion US dollars (£1.16 billion).
Garreth Wood and Nicola Wood were husband-and–wife philanthropists. KidsOR was established in 2021 by data collectors who discovered that the charity had enabled 49.154 operations.
This was a 65% improvement on the 29,780 it did the previous year.
The charity reported that 66% of the nearly 50,000 operations performed last year were elective, while 34% were emergencies.
Dr Olubunmi Majekodunmi of Nigeria said that the charity helped clear their patient backlog.
“The relief on the faces of parents when they realise that their kids can now have operations within a few days – enough time for preoperative preparation – is priceless,”The chief paediatric surgeon agreed.
KidsOR’s largest project was in Zambia where it helped to set up six operating rooms in two hospitals.
Around the world, over two billion children don’t have safe surgery access. Each year, more children are killed by not having the correct surgery than Malaria, HIV, and TB combined.
The 2021 year saw the treatment of 132 conditions, and prevented 835,000 years’ disability. It also awarded 22 scholarships in Africa to paediatric surgeons.