A Scottish charity which provides safe surgery for children in Africa and Latin America has won the backing of a leading UK fund manager which has its roots in Edinburgh.
Kids Operating Room (KidsOR), begun in 2018 by husband and wife philanthropists Garreth and Nicola Wood, has installed 50 Operating Rooms – giving 30,000 children in low and middle income countries a year access to safe surgery.
Its work will be boosted by support from the Artemis Charitable Foundation, the charitable trust set up by UK fund manager Artemis Investment Management, which has designated KidsOR as a beneficiary health charity and will contribute £25,000 in 2022.
In addition to providing state of the art paediatric Operating Rooms, KidsOR funds the training of paediatric surgeons and anaesthesia providers and works with National Ministries of Health to develop sustainable healthcare services.
Last year, Artemis Charitable Foundation funded the training of Burundian scholar, Dr Niyukuri’s – who, along with another trainee, will go on to become the country’s first paediatric surgeons.
Artemis also contributed funding towards a paediatric Operating Room at AIC Kijabe hospital in Kenya which will be installed this Spring
By the end of this decade the charity aims to have installed 120 dedicated children’s Operating Rooms across Africa, providing essential surgery to more than 635,000 children.
Kate Smith, Director of Fundraising and Communication at KidsOR, said: “There are 1.7 billion children globally who do not have access to surgical care when they need it. KidsOR is addressing this by installing state of the art Operating Rooms and training surgical teams.
“It is fundamental to us have partners like Artemis supporting our work so that together we can provide more children with access to safe surgery.
“The Artemis Charitable Foundation has a long history of generously supporting international and local charities. We are delighted Artemis has selected KidsOR as its junior health charity for this year and we look forward to working closely together over the next year.”
The Artemis Charitable Foundation seeks to support core charities in health, poverty, education and the environment.
Derek Stuart, Trustee of the Artemis Charitable Foundation and Co-Founder of Artemis Investment Management, said: “We are proud to be supporting KidsOR’s aim of providing safe surgery throughout Africa.
“The progress the charity has made in only four years is remarkable and we hope our support over the next year will push forward their objective of delivering safer surgery in Africa and Latin America.”
For more information on KidsOR, please visit: www.KidsOR.org
