News

World Pediatrics Celebrates 25,000 Children Healed in 25 Years

As World Pediatrics prepares to commemorate its 25th year of operation, it celebrates an extraordinary milestone: 25,000 children from resource-limited regions have received life-changing medical care. This achievement reflects the organization’s commitment to addressing the critical healthcare needs of children globally, bringing hope and healing to families who face seemingly insurmountable barriers to access.

World Pediatrics was founded on the belief that every child deserves access to advanced medical care regardless of geographic or socioeconomic barriers. The organization’s journey began in 1999 when orthodontist Dr. Julian Metts encountered a young girl in Guyana suffering from a preventable injury. This moment inspired World Pediatrics’ vision of “a hospital without walls.”

This concept took shape in 2001 with the establishment of the International Hospital for Children (IHC) in Richmond, VA. Four years later, IHC had reached its first significant milestone of healing 1,000 children and in 2008 launched the Eastern Caribbean “Hub Concept” as a pivotal expansion to enable surgical services to be extended across the region.

At a similar time in 2004, inspired by experiences in Haiti and the St. Louis medical community, Kate Corbett founded Healing the Children Missouri, to increase global access for children to specialized advanced pediatric services.

In 2011, IHC and Healing the Children Missouri merged to form World Pediatric Project (WPP), a unified entity that was able to accelerate the impact of the work. By 2016, only five years after the merger, WPP had celebrated two major achievements: reaching 10,000 children who had healed and facilitating $100 million in gifted pediatric care.

In 2021, Vafa Akhavan was appointed CEO, signaling a new era of leadership and bearing fruit to the organization’s strategic vision in 2022. “The restructuring was designed to push decision-making into the communities we serve,” Akhavan remarks. “This shift was made to empower local voices to define their needs and reduce bureaucratic delays. This way, we can ensure faster care for children and live the values that are ‘rooted in community.’”

“Three years later, the World Pediatric Project merged with Childspring International (CSI), evolving into World Pediatrics. This rebranding reflects a shift from a project-based approach to a long- term commitment as a global model for pediatric healthcare transformation. As former CSI Board Chair and current World Pediatrics Executive Board Member Kurtis Wolff notes, “from the very first meeting between Childspring International and World Pediatric Project, there was nothing more clear than the shared commitment and passion for serving the mission – serving the children. The merger of curated philanthropic networks and resources created a driving multiplier of the passion of the two organizations.”

Its three core modes of impact—Deliver, Empower, and Transform—serve as the foundation of its endeavors. Through its Deliver initiatives, World Pediatrics provides surgical and specialty care to children in need. It ensures timely and efficient care by coordinating local and international medical teams, offering regional diagnostic and surgical referrals, and utilizing telemedicine consultations.

Meanwhile, its Empower programs focus on building local healthcare capacity through workforce development, scholarships, and fellowships. The Transform initiatives, on the other hand, strengthen healthcare systems by optimizing infrastructure, providing leadership support, and conducting vital research and analysis.

World Pediatrics further distinguishes itself with its adoption of a holistic approach, encompassing over 15 specialties and subspecialties along with ancillary services. Its comprehensive care model addresses the immediate medical needs of children and the broader social and emotional challenges they face, such as bullying and familial stress. Moreover, the children that come to World Pediatrics receive continuous care until their case is resolved or they become an adult.

In addition, more than a third of its patients receive care across multiple specialties and geographic regions. With this, they benefit from a highly collaborative and integrated network of healthcare providers and partners. Working within existing health systems instead of operating independently allows World Pediatrics to strengthen local capacities and drive sustainable change.

World Pediatrics reaching its 25th year and healing 25,000 children reaffirms its dedication to its mission. The CEO states: “It’s a validation of our goal of healing more children in less time and democratizing access to care. Each life we touch shows the work we do with our local and global partners and how we create a world where geography is no longer a barrier to a child’s potential and how equitable access enables transformation.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *