February 22, 2022
Today, over a thousand babies will either be born with or acquire hydrocephalus. The vast majority are in lower income countries, and without some kind of surgical intervention, most of them will not survive past their second birthday. There is a profound sense of urgency to equip and support the surgeons and their teams on the front lines of this global health inequity. We started Neuro Kids to ensure that every baby with hydrocephalus has access to the care they need within our lifetime.
Today, 2/22/22 (Two’s Day!) marks the first anniversary of our founding of Neuro Kids. Later this week, members of the Neuro Kids team will be in Cairo, Egypt, to establish our inaugural partner site.
Dr. Benjamin Warf, the chairman of Neuro Kids, shared that “We hope this will be the first of 20 such sites we establish over the next 5 years, where we will assist our colleagues in saving the lives of thousands of children with hydrocephalus and spina bifida using the optimal, evidence-based methods we have developed over the past 20 years. We are excited, and thankful, for the progress we have made so far and for the tremendous opportunities that lie ahead.”
To borrow an African proverb, if you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
The Neuro Kids team spent much of our first year determining the right set of priorities, developing a cohesive plan and identifying the strategic partners toward our vision. As the Executive Director of Neuro Kids recently shared, we are proud to partner with Karl Storz, Ohana One, InterSurgeon and, especially, you, our supporters and donors.
There are many organizations working to fight poverty around the world. However, they rarely address the global inequity in surgical care for children. Alone and uniquely vulnerable, children living with treatable disabilities are under the constant risk of staying entrapped in cycle of poverty. This is especially true for children in need of neurosurgical care, where access to advanced services are often not locally available. We are launching Neuro Kid’s first center in Cairo to specifically address that and to create a model we can replicate over and over and over again.
Interested in supporting Neuro Kid’s vital work with vulnerable children? Reach out to Derek Johnson or visit us on at https://neurokids.org/contact-us/— I know he’d love to talk with you.
