Ensuring Africa’s children have access to safe surgery

Kids Operating Room Success Story

Summary

If you are unlucky enough to be a child now in many of the 54 African countries, and you need surgery, even the simplest of ailments like appendicitis can be a death sentence. Currently there is fewer than one paediatric surgeon for every 750,000 children. The long term result is damaged lives and an extraordinary economic cost when these children grow up, often with disabilities.

KidsOR was set up to ensure that every child has access to specialist care designed around them and supported by specially trained doctors, nurses and anaesthetists. The team have a goal of making sure every country has specialist care available by 2030. And not satisfied with that they are also working in South America where they’re tackling similar challenges. To deliver all this they needed advice and support from an agency with experience in creating large international fundraising campaigns from scratch.

The Challenge

Kids Operating Room (KidsOR) is an inspiring global social action project set up by an impressive Scottish couple who are entrepreneurs and philanthropists – Gareth and Nicola Wood and led by the their dynamic CEO David Cunningham.

KidsOR is not your regular INGO. There are a number of Western charities who provide doctors or surgeons ‘in country’ for periods ranging from a week to a month. These ‘fly in’ programmes are delivered with good intentions, and often deliver immediate benefits to the small numbers they reach. But their impact is limited by the onsite time. And by the fact that there is no sustainable infrastructure, people or facilities left after they leave.

KidsOR is different. They create sustainable infrastructure in everywhere they work. In each they establish a state-of-the-art children’s operating theatre, train local surgeons and anaesthetists, and work with the health authorities in country to ensure the facilities are maintained and upgraded over years.

How we helped

=mc worked with the founders and the strategic mastermind David Cunningham CEO to create an ambitious fundraising strategy to raise $100M in 5-10 years to achieve the vision.

The strategy began from first principles:

Identifying what potential sources of finance might be through prospects research
Exploring the competencies and capacities of this small but ambitious agency
Identifying key roles needed to flesh out the team creating a powerful case for support

The strategy wasn’t enough:

We advised the team on how to create appropriate messages at a high profile dinner in NYC to engage HNWI who were part of the Next Gen group of Giving Pledge philanthropists
We provided coaching support to the CEO over a period of several months while building up capacity to secure the funds

The Impact

The project is ongoing. We’re seeing some early successes with senior people from the US and Middle East joining the board as well as significant gifts coming in. And an important financial and operational partnership with another =mc consulting client, Smile Train, has been established.

There are new agencies coming on board to help with project delivery including Oxford, Edinburgh and Harvard Universities as well as major Africa-based coordination and training bodies such as The College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa and the West Africa College of Surgeons.

Who else have we helped?

=mc consulting has worked with a number of international and national charities to deliver large $100M+ fundraising projects. These include: WWF International, WWF Africa, EAMCEF Tanzania, UNICEF International, UNHCR, Sorbonne Paris (UMPC), and CRUK for the Francis Crick Centre.

Next Steps?

Have a similar challenge or want to explore a project?
Contact Bernard Ross, Director.

+44 7976 280314