The world needs more paediatric surgeons.
Every child on the planet deserves access to safe surgery.
This is something we can all agree on.
But, in 2024, surgically-treatable conditions remain, by far, the biggest threat to children's lives across the world. Did you know, every year 5 times more children die from issues that could have been treated by surgery, than from HIV, Malaria and TB combined?
And this, of course, affects children in low- and middle-income disproportionately. In fact, 9 out of 10 children here simply have 0 access to safe, timely surgery when they need it.
The problem?
Amongst other issues, low- and middle-income countries have a chronic lack of skilled surgical workforce. Simply put, there are not enough surgeons to deal with the volume of cases they receive.
How bad could this disparity be? High-income countries have an average of 1 specialist surgeon per 47,000 children. In low-income countries, this ratio is 1 for every 3 million.
When you consider that it's estimated that 85% of children in these countries will require some form of surgery before their 15th birthday - it becomes clear that the amount of children that are left behind is staggering. It's unjust.
Billions of children today are living vulnerable to a lifetime of pain, disability, or even death, from a simple condition that could be fixed with surgery.
The answer, to us at least, is clear.
We must address this inequity and invest in global surgical workforce. We must begin populating LMICs with talent
We believe in investing in local teams, to create strong, sustainable surgical teams. That's why Kids Operating Room have offered more than 60 life-changing paediatric surgical scholarships to local trainees, and created PAPSEP, a groundbreaking e-learning platform helping connect surgeons in Africa to the best training resources available in the world for the first ever time.
We're not going to stop. Every year, our work reaches more people, helps train more surgeons, and helps save more children's lives. But we can't do this alone.
If you're with us - join the mission. We believe in a world where safe, timely surgery is a human right. Show your support and join us by signing up below.