Let me introduce myself. My name is Stacia Neale and I am responsible for Fundraising Operations for HealthyKids International (HKI).
HKI is the international fundraising arm of SickKids Foundation and raises funds to support the international and highest priority programs of the Foundation and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Canada.
Our goal is to elevate the level of paediatric health-care capacity in some of the world’s most underserved communities. In conjunction with the Hospital, HKI has developed programs that address the global shortage of trained paediatric medical personnel. These initiatives are steeped in the belief that children need home-grown medical practitioners who understand their countries’ social and cultural contexts. Our aim is to build long-term strategic partnerships, create comprehensive training systems, develop educational models and encourage global knowledge sharing in an effort to improve the health outcomes of the world’s most vulnerable children.
Currently, I have the enormous good fortune to travel to Ethiopia with the cadre of surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, dentists and helpers who make up this year’s SickKids No Boundaries (SKNB) mission.
The SKNB team has been delivering clinical care and education to developing countries since 1999. The team of highly skilled professionals from SickKids aims to provide exemplary surgical and dental care to children in underserved parts of the world and to leave their communities with the knowledge and skills that will enable this care to continue. SKNB activities include medical assessments, clinical care, surgical/dental interventions and educational/training collaborations with health-care providers in sponsoring countries.
The group has recently committed to a longer-term relationship with partners at Addis Ababa University to achieve more sustainable health outcomes for children in Ethiopia. This is their second visit to Addis and the group will be able to continue nurturing relationships with their host counterparts at Black Lion Hospital. This year, the squad (who give up their holidays to travel with SKNB) consists of a dental team working at the Dental Institute, and two surgical groups, Orthopaedic and Ear Nose and Throat (ENT). The Ortho group will mainly be working on feet and hips this week and the ENT team will be concentrating on general surgeries of its discipline. Also, medical engineer, Avril Sullivan, will be working with her Ethiopian colleagues to fix and maintain the medical equipment at Black Lion.
I will be in Addis, along with videographer Graeme Mathieson, to document the No Boundaries work and interview both SickKids and Black Lion medical staff about their collaboration. This is required, not only for our own marketing collateral, but in order to fulfill the public engagement mandate of our recently awarded $2.4-million Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) grant. It is my pleasure to blog about our experiences in Ethiopia so you can read about the amazing reach of SickKids and HealthyKids International across the globe.