Did you know that only 3% of children in low income countries have access to surgery, while 85% of children in high income countries like the US have access? This means that easily treatable conditions like appendicitis or long bone fractures could result in death or lifelong disability for children in low and middle income countries. On the bright side, there are organizations like World Pediatric Project that are working to provide access to specialty medical care for children in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The episode features an interview with Vafa Akhavan, the CEO of World Pediatric Project, a nonprofit organization that provides access to specialty medical care for children in Latin America and the Caribbean. The conversation covers Vafa's background and career path, as well as the mission and unique model of World Pediatric Project. Vafa emphasizes the importance of access to healthcare for children in low and middle income countries and discusses the extreme cases that World Pediatric Project focuses on. This organization has amazingly developed a network of pediatricians, hospitals, and donors over the past 20 years, which allows them to care for children around the world.

Check out the shownotes to learn more!

Takeaways:

• Access to surgery for children in low-income countries is critically low, at only 3%.
• The World Pediatric Project aims to provide specialized medical care for underserved children.
• Unique surgical cases require tailored approaches, as each child's needs significantly differ.
• Building partnerships with local healthcare providers enhances the capacity of pediatric care systems.
• Children represent 30% of the population and are essential for a better future.
• The ripple effects of surgery can transform not only a child's life but entire communities.

______

Support the Podcast: Click here to send in a one-time or monthly donation

Submit a Question: Click here to send in a question!

Join the Podcast Mailing list: https://www.globalhealthpursuit.com/mailing-list

Make sure to follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook!

Email me at hetal@globalhealthpursuit.com

______

Thank you to our partners at CHIMUK: A sustainable and ethical handmade fashion brand transforming women's lives through knitting. Purchase one of a kind, high quality baby alpaca, and cotton handmade scarves, hats, and more! Each product comes with a special QR code linking you to a photo/bio of the artisan who handmade your product! Click here to see the impact you can make by shopping with Chimuk. >>Use the code GHP10 for 10% off at checkout!<<

Welcome back to the Global Health Pursuit podcast.

I'm your host, Hetal Bahman, and today I'm thrilled to revisit a powerful conversation I had with Vafa Akhavan, CEO of World Pediatrics, formerly known as World Pediatric Project.

This episode originally aired over a year ago, so for all of you newer listeners, it's a fantastic introduction to the incredible work that world pediatrics is doing. And for those of you who've been with us from the very beginning, I think that you'll enjoy this nostalgic throwback.

Next week, I'll be dropping a special episode sponsored by orthopediatrics, where we'll explore the importance of partnerships in advancing global health, especially for organizations like world Pediatrics.

So this replay will set the stage perfectly, reminding us of the vital impact that VAFA and his team are making in pediatric care for underserved communities.

Whether you're hearing it for the first time or you just want a refresher, this episode will bring you right up to speed before next week's deep dive into the power of partnerships, let's jump right in. Here's my conversation with Vafa Akhavan, CEO of World Pediatrics.

It means that in low and middle income countries, many common and otherwise easily treatable conditions, such as appendicitis or long bone fractures in children could result in death or a lifelong disability. Now we know that the surgical needs of children differ greatly from that of adults.

Each child needs customized care, whether it's a simple fracture of the femur or a complex craniofacial deformity.

On today's episode, we'll be exemplifying the work of World Pediatric Project, a nonprofit that is closing the gap in access to specialty medical care for children in Latin America and the Caribbean. We'll be learning from Vafa Akhavan, World Pediatric Project's chief executive officer.

Vafa brings a wealth of executive leadership experience, including a career of working with complex global organizations across seven industries in 16 different countries. He served as CEO at Newbridge, a global consultancy.

He was also CEO at Forum Corporation consultancy in Boston, and the vp of global operations, information and media for a of McGraw Hill in New York.

Vafa also serves on the board of directors of Children Believe, a global nonprofit focused on the health and well being of children in underserved communities during this conversation, we'll be learning about how Vafa's passion for advocating for children grew over time. We talk about what it was like going from a career of filmmaking to consulting to the children's nonprofit healthcare space.

And ultimately, we dig into the mission of World pediatric project and how its incredibly unique model serves children with the most difficult surgical challenges. As Vafa says, children are 30% of the population, but theyre 100% of the future. My name is Hetal Bahman, and this is the global health pursuit.

Vafa, thank you for coming onto the podcast. It is such a pleasure to have you here, and especially since you just. We were just talking about it. This is your first podcast interview.

So very, very excited.

Yeah, thank you, Hetal. It's wonderful to be here. Yeah.

Obviously, you know, podcast is such an important part of community and society today, and I'm really excited about this being my first one, particularly because it has to do with something I'm very passionate about. So thank you for inviting me and making the time.

Of course. So, as always, I use a question that is a little bit broad.

I listened to a podcast by Brene Brown, and she oftentimes will ask her guests what their story is.

Sure.

And you can take it as far back as you want.

Well, I mean, you know, I often think about how. How do I talk about a life that has been blessed with richness? And I think of it very much like a tapestry. Because I was born in Iran.

I was raised up high. I went to England for school, then I went to Canada. Then I went to the US, and then back to Canada, now back to the US.

I've worked in, I think, about 15 or 16 different countries. I've worked in seven different sectors. I've worked from startup to conglomerates.

Always the constant has been this notion of service and having impact, irrespective of the environment. There's always been this notion of giving back to the community.

And so it's difficult to talk about a background that has that kind of richness as opposed to, you know, I lived in the United States, and I worked with Microsoft for 35 years, and then, you know, I retired. So it's really been a wonderful journey. The story is very rich.

Many chapters in the book, the experiences of working in so many countries, working with so many different people from different cultures, from different socioeconomic background, from the front line of a conglomerate to meeting with the prime minister of a country or the health minister of a country. And the learnings, you know, the reservoir or the treasury of learnings that you can gain from that kind of a life experience is incredibly precious.

And I would encourage all people, especially the younger generation, to live a life that gives you that richness, because the perspective that you have will be the perspective that's necessary for advancing humanity into the future.

I agree. The episode that actually released this week, it's April 27. I actually interviewed a south asian therapist graduate student.

So we talked a lot about the intricacies of mental health stigma within south asian culture.

Yes. Not just that culture.

Oh, of course. I know it spans multiple, multiple cultures. But she did say, you really can't live for your parents. A lot of times we try to make them proud.

And, you know, me coming from a south asian background, you know, my parents are first immigrants from India, and what they wanted me to be is doctor. Right. But that's not really fulfilled me, of course. Right. They feel as if that's the highest achievement.

But I'm trying to find my own way because that's nothing. That's not necessarily what fulfilled me.

And so I'm glad to hear that you had mentioned that you were a filmmaker, and I want to kind of go into that a little bit, because I think it's just so interesting going from filmmaking to working as the CEO of World Pediatric Project. Tell me. Yeah, I want to ask you that because I think it's so, so interesting.

Well, I mean, I always had, and I still have a passion for film and television as a medium to transform community. And so when I was going, and like yourself, I was brought up in a. Even though my parents were, you know, very.

For their generation, they were very forward thinking. They were very global, had seen the world already when my brother and I were born. But still, they were kind of traditional. Doctor, lawyer.

And there's a hierarchy. Right. It's like doctors are at the top.

Right, right.

Doctor, lawyer, engineer, engineer, and then maybe architect. Right.

Oh, really?

Oh, yeah. We have architects on our list. Yeah.

Wow, that's so funny. Actually, I saw, I'm. My background is in engineering.

Right.

And it didn't seem like that was enough.

Yeah, sure. So, no, I mean, my. My parents were no different than others. They really love you, and they want the best for you. Right. And it's.

And it's based on their experience. But I was on this track of, you know, I wanted to be a part of transformation.

I wanted to make a contribution to changing communities and to elevating the human condition.

That was always a constant for me, whether it was in my work, in my career, with the teams that I worked with or the global organizations I was with or the volunteer work that I was doing. It was always focused on how do we elevate the human condition?

And so film, to me, I had a passion for it, and I said, well, I can study film, become a filmmaker, and then tell stories that elevate the human condition, that help people gain greater insight, become more familiar with the global nature of humanity, that, you know, the world is one country and mankind its citizens, and what is common between us. That was my passion.

So when they would cut, you either made it to the next year in production or you would go into film studies. So those were two distinct programs at the university. So I continued making. In the final year, there was 14 of us. Yeah, there was 14 of us now.

But this is. This is the kicker in the story. So at the beginning of my fourth year, I just find out that I'm one of 14 that is advancing to final year.

And I was really proud of that. And I was talking to my parents, and my dad said, I'm making a long story short. He said, are you sure you don't want to transfer to business?

Of course, of course.

You know, I mean, I've always loved him. He's always been my hero. But so I definitely understand, you know, that aspect of the culture.

But what I learned early was that one has to make decisions, and one has, and there are consequences to all of those decisions. The way that I learned to make decisions is to really be clear about who you are at the core and what you want to accomplish at the core.

And so then the way in which that is expressed becomes secondary.

So I realized that it didn't have to be, you know, it didn't have to be just through that medium that life will change and your conditions may change. Your situation may change, the situation and conditions around you may change.

So, you know, do you want to be so dogmatic or so fanatical about a particular medium for the expression of your beliefs, or do you want to be committed to your beliefs and be open to how they get expressed? So it doesn't matter what job you have really does it, I mean, it's important, but to me that became secondary.

So I was always looking for the opportunity to learn and to move. And life happened. I moved from film and television. I was very excited. We did the first IPO. We cleared the first IPO in Canada for a film fund.

It was the first one of its kind, and we did some incredible work, but life happened and I had to make changes, and I moved into a different job. And from there it led to, you know, moving to boutique consulting firm in Florida.

And then from there I went to JD Power, and then JD Power got acquired by McGraw Hill, and then they moved me to McGraw Hill. And from McGraw Hill I went, you know, an opportunity came my way.

I was approached to be the CEO at the Forum corporation, which was a global consulting firm. Now it's a part of corn Ferry, you know, and so life just happened, right? And it's this notion of what am I about at the core?

And can that be expressed irrespective of what the opportunity is or irrespective of where I am, what company I work for, what position? Because I've never believed you are defined by your rank, your title, your position, or your material well being or not wellbeing.

That, to me, is not what defines a person. And then I moved back to Canada, and I was with Newbridge, which is, again, back to the consulting profession.

And I knew that I wanted to give back in a more substantive way through nonprofit. So I joined the board of Children believe, which is a global nonprofit based out of Canada. And that's been incredible. I'm still on the board.

And then I was approached about this position, which is an incredible, incredible opportunity, so aligned with what I'm interested in doing, because I want to focus on children.

Did you first get that interest when you were approached to be on the board for children's belief?

I think I was born with that interest in children. I mean, I married very young because I wanted to have children at a young age.

I was always giving back to the community in terms of being involved with children and children classes in the Baha'I community, I was always teaching children's classes, and then I was teaching junior youth classes and mentoring, you know, the young, the junior youth and the youth. So it was always. I. I didn't articulate it this way until recently, but the way I articulate it now is that children are the future.

So if you want to impact the future and you want to be strategic about it, then focus on the children, because, you know, children are 30% of the population, but they're 100% of the future, and we can see what the adults of today are doing to the world.

So maybe we can focus on the children so that as we impact their life and the way they think and the way they make decisions in a positive way, have them focus on the unity of the world as opposed to the division of the world, then they will grow up and they will make decisions.

No matter better decisions, no matter what profession they are or what life choices they make, they'll be able to make better decisions for the future of humanity. And you do that, one generation, two generations, three generations, then you'll have a different world.

I think we're already seeing that with Gen Z.

Yes, I think so.

And something, the way that you spoke about your journey, it almost reminded me of another conversation that I had where she said, the universe is driving, and I'm just getting on the bus.

Right.

And wherever it stops is wherever I get off, and that's my next opportunity. And it's like, I'm not Christian, but it's like the Jesus take the wheel thing.

Well, listen. Yeah. It's a belief system, right?

And if the belief system is conducive to the betterment of humanity, that it's the cause of unity in the world, as opposed to the cause of discord in the world, then everyone is, you know, people that are interested in that will be on board. It doesn't matter what you call it, what you label it. Right, right. Those people are.

Those are the ones that you want to surround yourself with that are the cause of unity, that are the cause of joy and happiness and elevation. And if you can't make that distinction, that's a different problem to solve.

So you are the CEO of World Pediatric Project? It is a nonprofit that focuses on the surgical needs of children all over the world. What brought you into the space of healthcare?

Yeah, that's because I feel like it's very, very different. You know, filmmaking and then consulting and then on healthcare.

Sure. I have several relatives that are medical professionals, and I have some very good friends that are medical professionals.

One of them is a neurosurgeon in Toronto, and my cousin is a doctor in the Amazon. And when I told them that this is a position I'm taking, and they were all like, what?

What?

No, look, yeah, I mean, it's not a traditional thing, right?

When I first got the specification document about the position, I've had a long enough career and a wide enough set of experiences to be able to determine what a board of directors is looking for just, or what a hiring manager is looking for just by virtue of reading the spec doc, right. The specification document, I can tell you. So my initial response was, they're not going to want to talk to me.

And I told the recruiter, you know, they're probably looking for a World Health Organization executive or, you know, someone from, I don't know, care or I UNICEF, or someone that's been in the field.

Save the children, etcetera.

Right. A surgeon, a doctor in public health, etcetera.

And he basically convinced me that I should talk with, with the nominations committee because they were really interested in something different. And I said, do they know what that means? There's a lot of people that say, we want something different, we want someone different.

We want someone that's a change agent. And then they hire a very kind of a classic person for that job. They'll hire somebody who's done that job somewhere else very well and bring them in.

I was intrigued by the surgery. That's what really intrigued me, because we are pediatric surgery, but we're tertiary pediatric surgery, so it's not primary or secondary.

We handle the most difficult of the difficult cases.

So imagine a child that's got 140 degree bend in their spine, or imagine a child that essentially has two mouths, two noses, and a big hole in the middle of their face. These are very complicated, very difficult cases to do. And I've always been drawn to the extremes.

There's lots of great organizations that do great work, you know, delivering food, delivering education, delivering vaccines, helping transform communities, etc. Etc. But the most difficult situations, et al, are the easy ones to neglect and to overlook because they are the difficult. Right.

So that attracted me, the fact that it, the surgery to me, was a trigger event in the life of the child.

I love the notion of triggers, like, so if you look for yourself in your life, you will probably be able to identify certain trigger events or trigger decisions that had a long lasting ripple effect. Right?

Oh, yeah.

And the surgery to me is that for that child and that family, I mean, we have one, one child, Claudia Garcia, who's two and a half hours outside of Tegucigalpa in Honduras. Right. Severely deformed when she was born. Her hands are deformed. Nothing can be done for her hands. Both her legs had to get amputated.

She had to have two open heart surgeries, and she's had one spinal surgery, and she will need another two spine surgeries. Right.

Her grandfather used to carry her on his back from their house, which is outside the village to the village school so she could get educated, and then he would carry her back. Well, a few years ago, the grandfather passed away, so she's not getting any education. And the parents, the parents are not able to take care of her.

Her grandmother takes care of her. We're working with her. Right. That's an example of tertiary care. It's an extreme situation. Right.

But let me tell you what happened on my last visit to her, which was literally a month and a half ago. So we're in a van. There's five of us from the organization going to meet her, to visit with her.

It's, you know, it's, you have to drive on the highway. So it's a four lane highway. Then you get on a two lane asphalt highway. Then you get on a dirt road for an hour.

Then you get on something that's supposed to be a road. It's not a road. Then you park the car and you walk to get to their house. Okay?

Yeah.

So we're getting close to her place. We're still on the asphalt road, and there's a blockade. There's a mile jam in either direction, and there's a teacher strike.

So they blocked the middle of the road. So our country director in Honduras gets out. I'm at the back of the line. I'm driving. I'm back at the line.

We know that a couple of trucks honk their horn at me. I just went through and I got to the first blockade and there was lots of cars and there was people moving the cars apart.

It was like, it was a scene out of the tank.

Yeah.

You know, the waters. The cars are parting ways. We're going through.

They're parting the red sea.

Yeah, they're parting all of the cars. And we go through and we get to the middle, and there's lots of people in the middle walking around and demonstrating and so on.

And then I've got to stop. I stop, and then this elderly lady comes, opens the door and literally pulls me out and starts hugging me.

And then another elderly lady comes and starts hugging me. And they were basically thanking us for the work that we do in their community. Right.

Then we go to the other side of the blockade, because now we need to exit the blockade and go out. And the gentleman comes up and I'm stopped, I'm waiting.

And the gentleman comes and starts moving people around and the car's out of the way and he opens the way and he thanks me with a motion of his hand and, you know, lots of tears throughout all of this, of course.

Right?

And so Ileana gets in the car and we go. And I say, eliana, how did you, like, what happened? How did you do that? And she said, I went, I found the leader.

I went to the leader and I said, we need, you know, to get through. And he said, why do you need to get through? She said, I told him that we were going to visit Claudia Garcia.

And he said, are you the organization that's taking care of her? And Ileana said, yes. And he said, okay, we'll open up the blockade. Right.

Wow.

So the work that we did with Ileana was impacting the community. Right. It created this bond. It created a sense of unity. It creates this sense of appreciation.

It's really causing the community to aspire to a higher order is what I call it. Right.

So that trigger event, the surgery, will change the life of the child, will change the life of the family, and the accumulation of that is the transformation of a community. So that was very exciting for me when I was looking at this, you know, being here at world Pediatric.

I said, wow, imagine the ripple effects of all of those trigger events.

Right? And, you know, her getting the care means that she could get the education that she needs. That could also help.

Oh, she is, yeah. Imagine that person with those kinds of conditions being able to become an independent, income earning woman in her community. That's profound.

That is profound. And to also be able to help her family, I mean, it's profound. So she's, we found, you know, sponsors for her. She has a laptop, she has a cell phone.

She has Internet. She has transportation to the school, back and forth. And she was smiling so much and laughing when I was there.

And her grandmother said, I have not seen her smile or laugh in five years. How do I beat that when I'm working at, you know, McGraw hill in New York? I mean, it's wonderful.

I mean, that was a wonderful experience and it was wonderful. We achieved great things, but nothing comes close.

I think it's just, you know, everyone's priorities are different.

Sure.

Your priorities are to create unity, and it's just so nice to hear. So in terms of the model of world pediatric project, how is that connection to Claudia actually able to be made?

Yeah. Great question. So World Pediatric project has been around for 20 years. So over those years, it has developed presence in eleven countries.

And you can imagine that over those 20 years you're building an ecosystem, a network, a network of pediatricians, a network of hospitals, a network of suppliers, a network of surgeons, a network of donors and contributors. So you have this incredible network that you've developed over the years, and then the model begins to emerge. Right out of everybody doing good.

And beginning with, we're going to send a team of surgeons and nurses down to St. Vincent and we're going to do ten spine surgeries or whatever, and then we're going to come back. Wonderful. That's great. That was the beginning.

Where we are today is we have a presence, as in people on the ground. In those eleven countries, we have a network of pediatricians that refer children to us because they know us.

We have social media presence, which means we are found by parents that are looking, and we have relationships with partners in the field. So either the partner will refer or they will tell the parent to contact us directly. And it's a wonderful community.

So we have this networks that's developed and that's how the children come to us. Right.

We have a model whereby there are clinics, and in these clinic days or clinic events, the children will come and our professionals are down there and they will assess the children. They'll look at their file and they will look at their condition, they will prepare an intervention plan for them, what they need to do.

And then if the surgical team starts the day after, then they're fit into the surgery schedule right there on the spot.

If it's an extreme case, they will be brought to the United States, where the capacity for highly specialized surgery is greater than in some of these countries. So that's been the model up to now.

And what's the particularly unique about world pediatric project is that when the child enters the system, they are with us until they're 21. So they enter our platform and we are monitoring and managing their health until they're 21, which is, you know, for, for us anyways.

It's the demarcation for going into the adult program.

So they move into the adult care community because a lot of the conditions, as you can imagine, a lot of the conditions that we're treating are continuous. It's like the child is growing, right? The child is growing and changing physiologically.

And so it needs that kind of constant attention and monitoring and so on, because generally there are multiple surgeries involved over time. Now, what we have done since I came on board is we have added this focus on building to building capacity and sustainability into our model.

So the notion of, you know, one of our surgeons going down to St.

Lucia for surgery and us bringing nine surgeons from across the Caribbean to spend four days with our surgeon, so training the surgeons that are there. Right? So, and then another example of that, there are great, great surgical facilities around the world.

For example, a fantastic cardiovascular surgical facility in Tegucigalpa, which is at par with, you know, any tier one hospital in the United States or anywhere else.

So, okay, so if we've got a child that's in Nicaragua or in Colombia or somewhere close by, why do we need to bring them to the United States when we can get them to the care much faster there?

So that's another way of helping to build capacity, because, as you can imagine, you've got to practice your specialty, which means you've got to have enough cases so that you can practice that specialty, so you can build proficiency and expertise and so on. So that's another part of our strategy as we're moving forward. And then ultimately we're looking to transform pediatric health systems.

So what does that mean?

So we're partnering with Hospital Maria in Teguca, Galpa, as an example to help build that hospital into a center of pediatric excellence for Honduras and for the region. So, you know, we're sticking to the core because the need is so great and we're adding this layer of capacity building and sustainability.

There are 450 million children in the world under the age of five that don't have access to safe surgery. 450 million that don't have access to safe surgery. I mean, that's incredible.

The average life expectancy in Guatemala is 74.5 years. Right. That's 340,000 years of life lost every year in Guatemala. 340,000 years of life are lost in Guatemala every year.

Economically, that's about $4 billion over that 75 year period. Every year losing $4 billion over a 75 year period, assuming your gdp per capita stays constant.

I know, I know that's a big assumption, but just directionally, to think of the scale and the scope, I mean, there are more people dying in the world because they don't have access to this. To safe surgery is five times greater than HIV AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Five times greater. So that's our model.

That's the problem we're trying to solve.

It's like, if you're listening to this, it's like, how do you wrap your brain around all of this information? Those numbers that you just mentioned, they're just almost unfathomable.

Yeah. And that's why I encourage the younger generation to get that global perspective, to get that global experience.

That's one of the ways that you can appreciate, understand the scale and scope of global issues. I mean, you know, give back in any way that you can. That's wonderful.

Right?

That's wonderful. Helping your local community. When was the last time, just to your listener, ask yourself this question.

When was the last time you sat down with a homeless person on the street, on the concrete, on the street, and shared a meal with that person and had a conversation with that person, asking them about their life? I know you've got to be safe and you've got to be secure, all of those things, but has anybody thought of doing that?

That can be a very simple way to give back, to bring joy to somebody's life, even if it's for five minutes, ten minutes, because those are the.

People who feel like they're not seen.

It's a pebble, right? We're all pebbles. Some of us are bigger pebbles. It's not a judgment. It's not important what the size of the pebble is.

It's important that you drop your pebble into the water.

And create the ripple to start.

That's right.

Yeah. Something that you mentioned around social media during my travels to India and I, Honduras and Southeast Asia.

And within, like, these rural communities, you'll see that people often have these phones and they'll have social media accounts and all of that.

It's amazing.

So it's really interesting to see that that's also a way that you can connect with people who might need these services, et al.

We probably are able to connect with people more through Facebook than we do through their cell phones. Like, if we can't, because there's. There's a lot of rotation of cell numbers and cell phones in the countries that we work in. Right.

If we can't find them, if we dial a number, we can't find them. We send them a message on Facebook, because no matter where they are, they'll find a way to access their Facebook.

So we'll send a message, and then sometimes we can't find hetal, but we know, oh, we found Hetal's second cousin, so we'll contact. Do you know where he tell is? No, I don't know where she is. But her aunt, who's in that other village might know where she is.

So then we connect to the aunt. Why do we need to do that?

Because we need to make sure that we can get hetal to the imaging center so she can do her MRI or her ct scan or her x rays so that we can get those to the surgeon to do the work. We do all of that. We do all of that to make sure that the child has the proper documentation, has the proper background.

Irrespective of where they live. Irrespective of access, we make sure that they get it.

Yeah, I mean, irrespective of access. In terms of, like, if they're. If they're in a super rural area where there might be just like, a small clinic, there might not be clinics.

I mean, we've heard of people trekking hours and hours to get to a clinic. Right. For medical help.

Sure.

Even those people.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it's, you know, again, I said it's tertiary. Right. It's those difficult cases that I get drawn to personally.

And that's one of the things I love about world pediatric project is, you know, none of our names are going to be on a hospital building, which is wonderful to have. Thank you very much for those contributions. Please continue to make those contributions. But we've decided that this is where we want to work. Right.

We've decided we want to work with those children that would be the easy ones to neglect and overlook because it is so difficult.

So. Okay, so let's use Claudia, for example. You bring her to the hospital, she gets her surgery done. Now, there are follow ups, right?

You mentioned follow ups. And I think within the nonprofit world, I think that monitoring and evaluation is super, super critical.

I mean, first of all, for donors to keep being donors and to know that your process works.

Yes.

How do you track and report patient follow ups?

So we have a patient management platform where all of this information is stored. So it's entered into the information into the platform. It's stored in the platform.

And, you know, our doctors, our health professionals, ourselves internally have access to the information and to the file. So we're monitoring, and then our folks on the ground are following up. Right.

So our team in Honduras is following up with all the children in Honduras as to where, you know, when their next session is, what the next stage is, etc. Etcetera. So that's how we monitor and manage them over time.

So you have an on the ground team in every country that you serve?

In every country where we help children, yes. There are countries where we send the children.

So, for example, we might send the child to the cardiac wing at a hospital in Colombia that does incredible work. And then we'll partner with an organization.

This year, we are sending six children to Spain for surgery, and we partner with a nonprofit in Spain to manage them on the ground, so to speak. Right. Pick them up at the airport, drive them to their version of Ronald McDonald House or the host family house.

Make sure that they have what they need. I mean, you know, we have families that come up to the US and. Or go to Philadelphia and Chicago, and they've never experienced cold weather.

So we make sure they have proper clothing. You know, we make sure that, you know, they're well fed. We make sure that they show up for all their appointments.

And if they've got to go from the residence to the hospital, we provide the transportation.

All of that is taken care of so that they only worry about the health of the child and that the surgical team is concerned with the intervention and not the logistics and the back office stuff and administrative stuff and operational issues. So we take care of all of that so that they can just focus on the health and well being of the child. And these guys, I mean, they.

We had a surgical team recently that went out into a facility that ran out of blood.

So my country director sends me a picture of the two surgeons sitting on a chair, giving their own blood so that they can use the blood on the patients they're doing surgery on.

Oh, my gosh. Wow.

Okay. You know, we're all. It's really interesting, this community that's in pediatrics.

Like, we really care about the children so much that there isn't a lot of ego. Ego. You know, it's like, hey, hello, hetal? Yes. Listen, I've got this scoliosis condition and we can't fit him in. Do you have capacity to handle them?

Yeah. What do you need? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, or. No, I can't. Why don't you call John over at that organization? He might have some room.

I did want to mention that somebody that I interviewed very early on, his name is Doctor Briji. Doctor Witham Bridgie. He is the founder of Briji Scientific, and they focus on neonatal mortality in low and middle income countries.

It would just be awesome for you guys to talk. He and his team invented a neonatal incubator that is reusable and disposable. It is, like, incredible.

Nick Yu is actually a big part of what we do, and it is a priority for us into the future, is to develop a global program based on what we're doing in NICU today. So, yeah, happy to connect and have a conversation.

I think he was the third episode on the podcast, so it's out. You can definitely go check it out, you know, for the future. Where are you looking to go next? Like, what are your goals?

Um, I'd like to go on a holiday next.

Nice. I'm sure you. Somebody like you, you know.

You know, I'm, um. It's. I'm. I will continue to work in this space. Um, you know, I. I want to continue working until I can.

And I want to continue working with children until I can. Anything that has to do with the cause of children.

Because when, you know, and this goes back to your question of earlier, how do you go from film to healthcare?

It's really understanding what your core competencies and capabilities are and how well those align with the needs that you're looking or considering. Right, right. And I didn't need to be a health expert. We've got health expertise in this organization. Right.

But what the board wanted was this organization to evolve and to develop and to mature. So it was a wonderful organization. It still is a wonderful organization. But if I can equate it to someone growing up. Right.

So you go from adolescence to maturity. Right. And so it's that progression that the board wanted to accomplish. What's the next stage? And that's the kind of work that I do.

I didn't need to be a health expert. Right. So whatever comes next for me is going to be in the same vein. I want to focus on things that have to do with children.

I want to work with the cause of children, and it's got to be obviously somewhere where I can add value and have impact. Hopefully, this will be, you know, my final. The final chapter in Vafa's book is all about kids.

I absolutely love that.

Yeah.

Thank you, Bafa, for coming to the podcast.

Thank you for the invitation, et al. It was great to meet you, and I'm so excited that my first podcast was with you and with world pediatric project.

I mean, that's an incredible milestone that I will keep close to my heart. Thank you.

Thank you for listening to this episode. If you'd like to learn more about today's topic and guest, head over to the show notes LinkedIn in the description of this episode.

There you can get access to resources, links, and ways you can get involved in the pursuit for global health. And if you loved this episode, don't forget to write me a review on Apple podcasts and rate the podcast on Spotify.

It helps me get in front of more people just like you and continues to elevate the causes we are so passionate about. I'll see you in the next one.