Children’s Surgery International provides free pediatric medical and surgical services, along with professional education and training, to communities in need around the world.

To reduce global health care disparities by helping communities obtain the knowledge, skills and tools to provide life-changing surgical and medical care for children.

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Increase revenue.

Goal Type: This goal reflects our commitment to further our advocacy work for our organization and or cause area.

Goal Two: Increase impact.

Goal Type: Invest in the capacity of our organization (financial, management, technical, etc.).

Goal Three: Boost awareness and promote new engagement.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Describe an investment in leadership

A central component of our mission involves leadership development of medical personnel working within our partner sites. CSI leverages the skills sets of its staff and volunteers to mentor and train. Medical leaders and staff gained substantial leadership development through the spearheading of virtual educational initiatives rolled out to our partner sites, during the pandemic. The success of these online educational programs is the product of the investment team members made in themselves and each other as they collaborated on producing and presenting surgical topics. To date, we have offered 22 online education sessions to colleagues in Ethiopia, Liberia, Tanzania, and Zambia. Each mission trip applies a tremendous amount of organizational resources toward leadership development. Through in-person and virtual medical training as well as mentoring, we aim to work with our partners to take the next steps in a path toward self sufficiency.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Strategic Partnerships

• Raising Awareness

• Community Building

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

In 2019 and 2020, we completed six trips and provided life-changing surgery to more than 400 children. Nearly 120 CSI volunteers traveled to Ethiopia, Liberia, Mexico and Tanzania and provided more than 4,500 hours of volunteer service. At the start of the pandemic, CSI launched the its Online Education Series, a new model for education and collaboration. CSI volunteer experts presented sessions on topics including cleft lip and palate, pediatric urology and general surgery, providing opportunities to connect with our international partners to transfer knowledge and sustain relationships. CSI is proud to join International Medical Corps (IMC) to provide emergency medical care to children and families in Ukraine. CSI’s new strategic partnership with IMC is a natural extension of our mission and vision to reduce health care disparities. CSI was able to resume its mission travel in 2022.

The evolution of the pandemic has led us to adjust our program model in order to meet the needs of our global partners and continue to put patient safety and care first. We continue to expand our online medical training courses, and in 2022, resumed our in-person collaboration and hands-on training. Considerable planning went into making CSI’s first surgical trips since the start of the pandemic successful: smaller team size; COVID-19 testing and PPE strategies; consultations with our partners in Mexico and Ethiopia to plan surgical cases in advance of travel; and in Mexico, arrangements for family lodging that allowed for spacing. We sent small, targeted teams to Mexico and Ethiopia in the winter and spring. We are excited to be sending teams to Mexico, Ethiopia and Tanzania this fall and we are planning for a full schedule of trips in 2023.