Groundbreaking Health Plan: Saving Batswana Children's Lives

News

Fri Feb' 24

At Kids Operating Room, our mission is clear. We believe that access to safe surgery is a human right - and we are fighting hard to make that right a reality for children all across the world.

For that reason - we're delighted to announce a groundbreaking health plan that will bring life-saving surgical care to thousands of children in Botswana.

Over 43% of Botswana's population is under 18 years old. For many of these children, significant geographical or financial barriers lie between them and safe surgery. This means that the care needed for a simple illness or injury is not reliably, consistently available for children who need it. It results in children suffering, even dying, from conditions that could have been treated.

And for those who are able to make it to the operating table, their operations are often delayed and come too late, causing a range of ongoing issues for the child. Even if they receive care in time, the costs can be crippling to the family.

This gap in healthcare becomes more urgent when considering that, on average, a staggering 85% of children in low- and middle-income countries will require surgery before turning 15. The need for enhanced capacity for children's surgery is enormous, and Botswana is no different.

In existing operating rooms, children share space with adults, leading to a lack of meaningful time or equipment for the surgical teams to provide the best care. The lack of resources is such that one surgical team we worked with on this plan was dealing with a 6-year backlog of elective cases.

Our groundbreaking plan is going to save thousands of Batswana children's lives for years to come.

The plan includes:

2 brand new Centers of Excellence for Children's Surgery.
Training for numerous local children's surgical care providers.
Funding for biomedical engineers to maintain and care for life-saving equipment.
Solar Surgery System, allowing the team to work through power cuts and ensure patient safety.

We're incredibly grateful to Steve Lansdown CBE, entrepreneur and financier, for his crucial investment in this plan.

"With a growing population and a lack of access to safe and timely surgery for children, this is such a positive investment into Botswana’s future. We are especially pleased that this is a locally developed plan, which will give it the best chance of success and we are proud to support these doctors as they strive to improve care for every child in Botswana.” - Steve Lansdown.

“We are incredibly grateful to Steve and Maggie for agreeing to fund this incredible programme in Botswana that will see thousands of children access care every year. This is an important step in our mission to improve the quality of healthcare for children across the world. This investment will truly change children’s lives throughout Botswana.” - Kids Operating Room co-founder Garreth Wood.

Every child in Botswana deserves access to life-saving care.

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