October 15, 2024 • 41 mins
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to the GlobalHealth Pursuit podcast. I'm your
host, Hetal Bahman, and todayI'm thrilled to revisit a powerful
conversation I had with VafaAkhavan, CEO of World Pediatrics,
formerly known as WorldPediatric Project. This episode originally
aired over a year ago, so forall of you newer listeners, it's
(00:24):
a fantastic introduction tothe incredible work that world pediatrics
is doing. And for those of youwho've been with us from the very
beginning, I think that you'llenjoy this nostalgic throwback. Next
week, I'll be dropping aspecial episode sponsored by orthopediatrics,
where we'll explore theimportance of partnerships in advancing
(00:45):
global health, especially fororganizations like world Pediatrics.
So this replay will set thestage perfectly, reminding us of
the vital impact that VAFA andhis team are making in pediatric
care for underservedcommunities. Whether you're hearing
it for the first time or youjust want a refresher, this episode
(01:08):
will bring you right up tospeed before next week's deep dive
into the power ofpartnerships, let's jump right in.
Here's my conversation withVafa Akhavan, CEO of World Pediatrics.
According to a 2022 article inthe Pediatric Surgery International
(01:28):
Journal, only 3% of childrenin low income countries have access
to surgery. This number jumpsto 85% of children when it comes
to high income countries likethe US. So what does this mean? It
means that in low and middleincome countries, many common and
otherwise easily treatableconditions, such as appendicitis
(01:51):
or long bone fractures inchildren could result in death or
a lifelong disability. Now weknow that the surgical needs of children
differ greatly from that ofadults. Each child needs customized
care, whether it's a simplefracture of the femur or a complex
craniofacial deformity. Ontoday's episode, we'll be exemplifying
(02:14):
the work of World PediatricProject, a nonprofit that is closing
the gap in access to specialtymedical care for children in Latin
America and the Caribbean.We'll be learning from Vafa Akhavan,
World Pediatric Project'schief executive officer. Vafa bring
a wealth of executiveleadership experience, including
(02:36):
a career of working withcomplex global organizations across
seven industries in 16different countries. He served as
CEO at Newbridge, a globalconsultancy. He was also CEO at Forum
Corporation consultancy inBoston, and the vp of global operations,
information and media for a ofMcGraw Hill in New York. Vafa also
(03:00):
serves on the board ofdirectors of Children Believe, a
global nonprofit focused onthe health and well being of children
in underserved communitiesduring this conversation, we'll be
learning about how Vafa'spassion for advocating for children
grew over time. We talk aboutwhat it was like going from a career
of filmmaking to consulting tothe children's nonprofit healthcare
(03:23):
space. And ultimately, we diginto the mission of World pediatric
project and how its incrediblyunique model serves children with
the most difficult surgicalchallenges. As Vafa says, children
are 30% of the population, buttheyre 100% of the future. My name
is Hetal Bahman, and this isthe global health pursuit. Vafa,
(03:50):
thank you for coming onto thepodcast. It is such a pleasure to
have you here, and especiallysince you just. We were just talking
about it. This is your firstpodcast interview. So very, very
excited.
Yeah, thank you, Hetal. It'swonderful to be here. Yeah. Obviously,
you know, podcast is such animportant part of community and society
today, and I'm really excitedabout this being my first one, particularly
(04:15):
because it has to do withsomething I'm very passionate about.
So thank you for inviting meand making the time.
Of course. So, as always, Iuse a question that is a little bit
broad. I listened to a podcastby Brene Brown, and she oftentimes
will ask her guests what theirstory is.
Sure.
And you can take it as farback as you want.
(04:37):
Well, I mean, you know, Ioften think about how. How do I talk
about a life that has beenblessed with richness? And I think
of it very much like atapestry. Because I was born in Iran.
I was raised up high. I wentto England for school, then I went
(04:59):
to Canada. Then I went to theUS, and then back to Canada, now
back to the US. I've workedin, I think, about 15 or 16 different
countries. I've worked inseven different sectors. I've worked
from startup to conglomerates.Always the constant has been this
notion of service and havingimpact, irrespective of the environment.
(05:22):
There's always been thisnotion of giving back to the community.
And so it's difficult to talkabout a background that has that
kind of richness as opposedto, you know, I lived in the United
States, and I worked withMicrosoft for 35 years, and then,
you know, I retired. So it'sreally been a wonderful journey.
(05:45):
The story is very rich. Manychapters in the book, the experiences
of working in so manycountries, working with so many different
people from differentcultures, from different socioeconomic
background, from the frontline of a conglomerate to meeting
with the prime minister of acountry or the health minister of
a country. And the learnings,you know, the reservoir or the treasury
(06:10):
of learnings that you can gainfrom that kind of a life experience
is incredibly precious. And Iwould encourage all people, especially
the younger generation, tolive a life that gives you that richness,
because the perspective thatyou have will be the perspective
that's necessary for advancinghumanity into the future.
(06:31):
I agree. The episode thatactually released this week, it's
April 27. I actuallyinterviewed a south asian therapist
graduate student. So we talkeda lot about the intricacies of mental
health stigma within southasian culture.
Yes. Not just that culture.
Oh, of course. I know it spansmultiple, multiple cultures. But
(06:56):
she did say, you really can'tlive 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, myparents are first immigrants from
India, and what they wanted meto be is doctor. Right. But that's
not really fulfilled me, ofcourse. Right. They feel as if that's
(07:17):
the highest achievement. ButI'm trying to find my own way because
that's nothing. That's notnecessarily what fulfilled me. And
so I'm glad to hear that youhad mentioned that you were a filmmaker,
and I want to kind of go intothat a little bit, because I think
it's just so interesting goingfrom filmmaking to working as the
(07:38):
CEO of World PediatricProject. Tell me. Yeah, I want to
ask you that because I thinkit's so, so interesting.
Well, I mean, I always had,and I still have a passion for film
and television as a medium totransform community. And so when
I was going, and likeyourself, I was brought up in a.
(08:02):
Even though my parents were,you know, very. For their generation,
they were very forwardthinking. They were very global,
had seen the world alreadywhen my brother and I were born.
But still, they were kind oftraditional. Doctor, lawyer. And
there's a hierarchy. Right.It's like doctors are at the top.
Right, right.
(08:22):
Doctor, lawyer, engineer,engineer, and then maybe architect.
Right.
Oh, really?
Oh, yeah. We have architectson 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 thatwas enough.
Yeah, sure. So, no, I mean,my. My parents were no different
(08:43):
than others. They really loveyou, and they want the best for you.
Right. And it's. And it'sbased on their experience. But I
was on this track of, youknow, I wanted to be a part of transformation.
I wanted to make acontribution to changing communities
and to elevating the humancondition. That was always a constant
for me, whether it was in mywork, in my career, with the teams
(09:03):
that I worked with or theglobal organizations I was with or
the volunteer work that I wasdoing. It was always focused on how
do we elevate the humancondition? And so film, to me, I
had a passion for it, and Isaid, well, I can study film, become
a filmmaker, and then tellstories that elevate the human condition,
that help people gain greaterinsight, become more familiar with
(09:25):
the global nature of humanity,that, you know, the world is one
country and mankind itscitizens, and what is common between
us. That was my passion. So Iwent into film, and I remember the
university that I went to atthe time, York University, was the
only university in Canada thathad a film program. If I remember
correctly, there was somethinglike around 1700 applications from
(09:48):
around the world. Every yearat the time, they accepted about
a 120 into first year, it wasa four year program. And by fourth
year, from that, roughly 1700to 121st year in the. And every year,
they would cut. So when theywould cut, you either made it to
the next year in production oryou would go into film studies. So
(10:13):
those were two distinctprograms at the university. So I
continued making. In the finalyear, 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 myfourth year, I just find out that
I'm one of 14 that isadvancing to final year. And I was
really proud of that. And Iwas talking to my parents, and my
(10:33):
dad said, I'm making a longstory short. He said, are you sure
you don't want to transfer to business?
Of course, of course.
You know, I mean, I've alwaysloved him. He's always been my hero.
But so I definitelyunderstand, you know, that aspect
of the culture. But what Ilearned early was that one has to
(10:58):
make decisions, and one has,and there are consequences to all
of those decisions. The waythat I learned to make decisions
is to really be clear aboutwho you are at the core and what
you want to accomplish at thecore. And so then the way in which
(11:20):
that is expressed becomessecondary. So I realized that it
didn't have to be, you know,it didn't have to be just through
that medium that life willchange and your conditions may change.
Your situation may change, thesituation and conditions around you
may change. So, you know, doyou want to be so dogmatic or so
(11:42):
fanatical about a particularmedium for the expression of your
beliefs, or do you want to becommitted to your beliefs and be
open to how they getexpressed? So it doesn't matter what
job you have really does it, Imean, it's important, but to me that
became secondary. So I wasalways looking for the opportunity
to learn and to move. And lifehappened. I moved from film and television.
(12:05):
I was very excited. We did thefirst IPO. We cleared the first IPO
in Canada for a film fund. Itwas 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 adifferent job. And from there it
led to, you know, moving toboutique consulting firm in Florida.
(12:27):
And then from there I went toJD Power, and then JD Power got acquired
by McGraw Hill, and then theymoved me to McGraw Hill. And from
McGraw Hill I went, you know,an opportunity came my way. I was
approached to be the CEO atthe Forum corporation, which was
a global consulting firm. Nowit's a part of corn Ferry, you know,
and so life just happened,right? And it's this notion of what
(12:50):
am I about at the core? Andcan that be expressed irrespective
of what the opportunity is orirrespective of where I am, what
company I work for, whatposition? Because I've never believed
you are defined by your rank,your title, your position, or your
material well being or notwellbeing. That, to me, is not what
(13:13):
defines a person. And then Imoved back to Canada, and I was with
Newbridge, which is, again,back to the consulting profession.
And I knew that I wanted togive back in a more substantive way
through nonprofit. So I joinedthe board of Children believe, which
is a global nonprofit basedout of Canada. And that's been incredible.
(13:35):
I'm still on the board. Andthen I was approached about this
position, which is anincredible, incredible opportunity,
so aligned with what I'minterested in doing, because I want
to focus on children.
Did you first get thatinterest when you were approached
to be on the board forchildren's belief?
I think I was born with thatinterest in children. I mean, I married
(13:55):
very young because I wanted tohave children at a young age. I was
always giving back to thecommunity in terms of being involved
with children and childrenclasses in the Baha'I community,
I was always teachingchildren's classes, and then I was
teaching junior youth classesand mentoring, you know, the young,
the junior youth and theyouth. So it was always. I. I didn't
(14:17):
articulate it this way untilrecently, but the way I articulate
it now is that children arethe future. So if you want to impact
the future and you want to bestrategic about it, then focus on
the children, because, youknow, children are 30% of the population,
but they're 100% of thefuture, and we can see what the adults
of today are doing to theworld. So maybe we can focus on the
(14:38):
children so that as we impacttheir life and the way they think
and the way they makedecisions in a positive way, have
them focus on the unity of theworld as opposed to the division
of the world, then they willgrow up and they will make decisions.
No matter better decisions, nomatter what profession they are or
what life choices they make,they'll be able to make better decisions
(15:01):
for the future of humanity.And you do that, one generation,
two generations, threegenerations, then you'll have a different
world.
I think we're already seeingthat with Gen Z.
Yes, I think so.
And something, the way thatyou spoke about your journey, it
almost reminded me of anotherconversation that I had where she
said, the universe is driving,and I'm just getting on the bus.
(15:22):
Right.
And wherever it stops iswherever I get off, and that's my
next opportunity. And it'slike, I'm not Christian, but it's
like the Jesus take the wheel thing.
Well, listen. Yeah. It's abelief system, right? And if the
belief system is conducive tothe betterment of humanity, that
(15:42):
it's the cause of unity in theworld, as opposed to the cause of
discord in the world, theneveryone is, you know, people that
are interested in that will beon board. It doesn't matter what
you call it, what you labelit. Right, right. Those people are.
Those are the ones that youwant to surround yourself with that
are the cause of unity, thatare the cause of joy and happiness
and elevation. And if youcan't make that distinction, that's
(16:05):
a different problem to solve.
So you are the CEO of WorldPediatric Project? It is a nonprofit
that focuses on the surgicalneeds of children all over the world.
What brought you into thespace of healthcare? Yeah, that's
because I feel like it's very,very different. You know, filmmaking
and then consulting and thenon healthcare.
(16:26):
Sure. I have several relativesthat are medical professionals, and
I have some very good friendsthat are medical professionals. One
of them is a neurosurgeon inToronto, and my cousin is a doctor
in the Amazon. And when I toldthem that this is a position I'm
taking, and they were alllike, what?
What?
(16:48):
No, look, yeah, I mean, it'snot a traditional thing, right? When
I first got the specificationdocument about the position, I've
had a long enough career and awide enough set of experiences to
be able to determine what aboard of directors is looking for
just, or what a hiring manageris looking for just by virtue of
(17:09):
reading the spec doc, right.The specification document, I can
tell you. So my initialresponse was, they're not going to
want to talk to me. And I toldthe recruiter, you know, they're
probably looking for a WorldHealth Organization executive or,
you know, someone from, Idon't know, care or I UNICEF, or
(17:29):
someone that's been in the field.
Save the children, etcetera.
Right. A surgeon, a doctor inpublic health, etcetera. And he basically
convinced me that I shouldtalk with, with the nominations committee
because they were reallyinterested in something different.
And I said, do they know whatthat means? There's a lot of people
that say, we want somethingdifferent, we want someone different.
(17:51):
We want someone that's achange agent. And then they hire
a very kind of a classicperson for that job. They'll hire
somebody who's done that jobsomewhere else very well and bring
them in. I was intrigued bythe surgery. That's what really intrigued
me, because we are pediatricsurgery, but we're tertiary pediatric
(18:13):
surgery, so it's not primaryor secondary. We handle the most
difficult of the difficultcases. So imagine a child that's
got 140 degree bend in theirspine, or imagine a child that essentially
has two mouths, two noses, anda big hole in the middle of their
face. These are verycomplicated, very difficult cases
(18:36):
to do. And I've always beendrawn to the extremes. There's lots
of great organizations that dogreat work, you know, delivering
food, delivering education,delivering vaccines, helping transform
communities, etc. Etc. But themost difficult situations, et al,
(18:56):
are the easy ones to neglectand to overlook because they are
the difficult. Right. So thatattracted me, the fact that it, the
surgery to me, was a triggerevent in the life of the child. I
love the notion of triggers,like, so if you look for yourself
in your life, you willprobably be able to identify certain
(19:20):
trigger events or triggerdecisions that had a long lasting
ripple effect. Right?
Oh, yeah.
And the surgery to me is thatfor that child and that family, I
mean, we have one, one child,Claudia Garcia, who's two and a half
hours outside of Tegucigalpain Honduras. Right. Severely deformed
when she was born. Her handsare deformed. Nothing can be done
(19:40):
for her hands. Both her legshad to get amputated. She had to
have two open heart surgeries,and she's had one spinal surgery,
and she will need another twospine surgeries. Right. Her grandfather
used to carry her on his backfrom their house, which is outside
the village to the villageschool so she could get educated,
and then he would carry herback. Well, a few years ago, the
(20:03):
grandfather passed away, soshe's not getting any education.
And the parents, the parentsare not able to take care of her.
Her grandmother takes care ofher. We're working with her. Right.
That's an example of tertiarycare. It's an extreme situation.
Right. But let me tell youwhat happened on my last visit to
her, which was literally amonth and a half ago. So we're in
(20:25):
a van. There's five of us fromthe organization going to meet her,
to visit with her. It's, youknow, it's, you have to drive on
the highway. So it's a fourlane highway. Then you get on a two
lane asphalt highway. Then youget on a dirt road for an hour. Then
you get on something that'ssupposed to be a road. It's not a
road. Then you park the carand you walk to get to their house.
(20:46):
Okay?
Yeah.
So we're getting close to herplace. 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 directorin Honduras gets out. I'm at the
back of the line. I'm driving.I'm back at the line. She goes to
(21:08):
where the demonstration is, Ithink probably about 1012 minutes
later, she calls me and says,okay, come on through. So I get into
the other lane and I'm drivingdown, and everybody who's parked
is giving me dirty looks like,who are you? We know that a couple
of trucks honk their horn atme. I just went through and I got
to the first blockade andthere was lots of cars and there
(21:30):
was people moving the carsapart. It was like, it was a scene
out of the tank.
Yeah.
You know, the waters. The carsare parting ways. We're going through.
They're parting the red sea.
Yeah, they're parting all ofthe cars. And we go through and we
get to the middle, and there'slots of people in the middle walking
around and demonstrating andso on. And then I've got to stop.
I stop, and then this elderlylady comes, opens the door and literally
(21:53):
pulls me out and startshugging me. And then another elderly
lady comes and starts huggingme. And they were basically thanking
us for the work that we do intheir community. Right. Then we go
to the other side of theblockade, because now we need to
exit the blockade and go out.And the gentleman comes up and I'm
stopped, I'm waiting. And thegentleman comes and starts moving
(22:15):
people around and the car'sout of the way and he opens the way
and he thanks me with a motionof his hand and, you know, lots of
tears throughout all of this,of course.
Right?
And so Ileana gets in the carand 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. Iwent to the leader and I said, we
need, you know, to getthrough. And he said, why do you
(22:36):
need to get through? She said,I told him that we were going to
visit Claudia Garcia. And hesaid, are you the organization that's
taking care of her? And Ileanasaid, yes. And he said, okay, we'll
open up the blockade. Right.
Wow.
So the work that we did withIleana was impacting the community.
Right. It created this bond.It created a sense of unity. It creates
(22:59):
this sense of appreciation.It's really causing the community
to aspire to a higher order iswhat I call it. Right. So that trigger
event, the surgery, willchange 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
(23:19):
when I was looking at this,you know, being here at world Pediatric.
I said, wow, imagine theripple effects of all of those trigger
events.
Right? And, you know, hergetting the care means that she could
get the education that sheneeds. That could also help.
Oh, she is, yeah. Imagine thatperson with those kinds of conditions
(23:43):
being able to become anindependent, income earning woman
in her community. That'sprofound. That is profound. And to
also be able to help herfamily, 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 hasInternet. She has transportation
(24:04):
to the school, back and forth.And she was smiling so much and laughing
when I was there. And hergrandmother said, I have not seen
her smile or laugh in fiveyears. How do I beat that when I'm
working at, you know, McGrawhill in New York? I mean, it's wonderful.
I mean, that was a wonderfulexperience and it was wonderful.
We achieved great things, butnothing comes close.
(24:26):
I think it's just, you know,everyone's priorities are different.
Sure.
Your priorities are to createunity, and it's just so nice to hear.
So in terms of the model ofworld pediatric project, how is that
connection to Claudia actuallyable to be made?
Yeah. Great question. So WorldPediatric project has been around
(24:50):
for 20 years. So over thoseyears, it has developed presence
in eleven countries. And youcan imagine that over those 20 years
you're building an ecosystem,a network, a network of pediatricians,
a network of hospitals, anetwork of suppliers, a network of
(25:11):
surgeons, a network of donorsand contributors. So you have this
incredible network that you'vedeveloped over the years, and then
the model begins to emerge.Right out of everybody doing good.
And beginning with, we'regoing to send a team of surgeons
and nurses down to St. Vincentand we're going to do ten spine surgeries
or whatever, and then we'regoing to come back. Wonderful. That's
(25:33):
great. That was the beginning.Where we are today is we have a presence,
as in people on the ground. Inthose eleven countries, we have a
network of pediatricians thatrefer children to us because they
know us. We have social mediapresence, which means we are found
by parents that are looking,and we have relationships with partners
(25:58):
in the field. So either thepartner will refer or they will tell
the parent to contact usdirectly. And it's a wonderful community.
So we have this networksthat's developed and that's how the
children come to us. Right. Wehave a model whereby there are clinics,
and in these clinic days orclinic events, the children will
(26:19):
come and our professionals aredown there and they will assess the
children. They'll look attheir file and they will look at
their condition, they willprepare an intervention plan for
them, what they need to do.And then if the surgical team starts
the day after, then they'refit into the surgery schedule right
there on the spot. If it's anextreme case, they will be brought
(26:40):
to the United States, wherethe capacity for highly specialized
surgery is greater than insome of these countries. So that's
been the model up to now. Andwhat's the particularly unique about
world pediatric project isthat when the child enters the system,
they are with us until they're21. So they enter our platform and
(27:03):
we are monitoring and managingtheir health until they're 21, which
is, you know, for, for usanyways. It's the demarcation for
going into the adult program.So they move into the adult care
community because a lot of theconditions, as you can imagine, a
lot of the conditions thatwe're treating are continuous. It's
like the child is growing,right? The child is growing and changing
(27:24):
physiologically. And so itneeds 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 thisfocus on building to building capacity
(27:44):
and sustainability into ourmodel. So the notion of, you know,
one of our surgeons going downto St. Lucia for surgery and us bringing
nine surgeons from across theCaribbean to spend four days with
our surgeon, so training thesurgeons that are there. Right? So,
(28:06):
and then another example ofthat, there are great, great surgical
facilities around the world.For example, a fantastic cardiovascular
surgical facility inTegucigalpa, which is at par with,
you know, any tier onehospital in the United States or
anywhere else. So, okay, so ifwe've got a child that's in Nicaragua
(28:29):
or in Colombia or somewhereclose by, why do we need to bring
them to the United States whenwe can get them to the care much
faster there? So that'sanother way of helping to build capacity,
because, as you can imagine,you've got to practice your specialty,
which means you've got to haveenough cases so that you can practice
(28:49):
that specialty, so you canbuild proficiency and expertise and
so on. So that's another partof our strategy as we're moving forward.
And then ultimately we'relooking to transform pediatric health
systems. So what does thatmean? So we're partnering with Hospital
Maria in Teguca, Galpa, as anexample to help build that hospital
(29:12):
into a center of pediatricexcellence for Honduras and for the
region. So, you know, we'resticking to the core because the
need is so great and we'readding this layer of capacity building
and sustainability. There are450 million children in the world
under the age of five thatdon't have access to safe surgery.
(29:33):
450 million that don't haveaccess to safe surgery. I mean, that's
incredible. There are two anda half million babies that pass away
during the neonatal periodaround the world. I'll give you some
specific data. Guatemala loses4500 babies a year during the neonatal
(29:54):
period. The average lifeexpectancy in Guatemala is 74.5 years.
Right. That's 340,000 years oflife lost every year in Guatemala.
340,000 years of life are lostin Guatemala every year. Economically,
that's about $4 billion overthat 75 year period. Every year losing
(30:20):
$4 billion over a 75 yearperiod, assuming your gdp per capita
stays constant. I know, I knowthat's a big assumption, but just
directionally, to think of thescale and the scope, I mean, there
are more people dying in theworld because they don't have access
to this. To safe surgery isfive times greater than HIV AIDS,
(30:41):
malaria and tuberculosiscombined. Five times greater. So
that's our model. That's theproblem we're trying to solve.
It's like, if you're listeningto this, it's like, how do you wrap
your brain around all of thisinformation? Those numbers that you
just mentioned, they're justalmost unfathomable.
Yeah. And that's why Iencourage the younger generation
(31:04):
to get that globalperspective, to get that global experience.
That's one of the ways thatyou can appreciate, understand the
scale and scope of globalissues. I mean, you know, give back
in any way that you can.That's wonderful.
Right?
That's wonderful. Helping yourlocal community. When was the last
time, just to your listener,ask yourself this question. When
(31:26):
was the last time you sat downwith a homeless person on the street,
on the concrete, on thestreet, and shared a meal with that
person and had a conversationwith that person, asking them about
their life? I know you've gotto be safe and you've got to be secure,
all of those things, but hasanybody thought of doing that? That
can be a very simple way togive back, to bring joy to somebody's
(31:49):
life, even if it's for fiveminutes, ten minutes, because those
are the.
People who feel like they'renot seen.
It's a pebble, right? We'reall pebbles. Some of us are bigger
pebbles. It's not a judgment.It's not important what the size
of the pebble is. It'simportant that you drop your pebble
into the water.
And create the ripple to start.
(32:11):
That's right.
Yeah. Something that youmentioned around social media during
my travels to India and I,Honduras and Southeast Asia. And
within, like, these ruralcommunities, you'll see that people
often have these phones andthey'll have social media accounts
and all of that.
(32:32):
It's amazing.
So it's really interesting tosee that that's also a way that you
can connect with people whomight need these services, et al.
We probably are able toconnect with people more through
Facebook than we do throughtheir cell phones. Like, if we can't,
because there's. There's a lotof rotation of cell numbers and cell
(32:54):
phones in the countries thatwe work in. Right. If we can't find
them, if we dial a number, wecan't find them. We send them a message
on Facebook, because no matterwhere they are, they'll find a way
to access their Facebook. Sowe'll send a message, and then sometimes
we can't find hetal, but weknow, oh, we found Hetal's second
cousin, so we'll contact. Doyou know where he tell is? No, I
(33:17):
don't know where she is. Buther aunt, who's in that other village
might know where she is. Sothen we connect to the aunt. Why
do we need to do that? Becausewe need to make sure that we can
get hetal to the imagingcenter so she can do her MRI or her
ct scan or her x rays so thatwe can get those to the surgeon to
do the work. We do all ofthat. We do all of that to make sure
(33:42):
that the child has the properdocumentation, has the proper background.
Irrespective of where theylive. Irrespective of access, we
make sure that they get it.
Yeah, I mean, irrespective ofaccess. In terms of, like, if they're.
If they're in a super ruralarea where there might be just like,
(34:02):
a small clinic, there mightnot be clinics. I mean, we've heard
of people trekking hours andhours to get to a clinic. Right.
For medical help.
Sure.
Even those people.
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's, youknow, again, I said it's tertiary.
Right. It's those difficultcases that I get drawn to personally.
(34:24):
And that's one of the things Ilove about world pediatric project
is, you know, none of ournames are going to be on a hospital
building, which is wonderfulto have. Thank you very much for
those contributions. Pleasecontinue to make those contributions.
But we've decided that this iswhere we want to work. Right. We've
decided we want to work withthose children that would be the
(34:46):
easy ones to neglect andoverlook because it is so difficult.
So. Okay, so let's useClaudia, for example. You bring her
to the hospital, she gets hersurgery done. Now, there are follow
ups, right? You mentionedfollow ups. And I think within the
nonprofit world, I think thatmonitoring and evaluation is super,
(35:08):
super critical. I mean, firstof all, for donors to keep being
donors and to know that yourprocess works.
Yes.
How do you track and reportpatient follow ups?
So we have a patientmanagement platform where all of
this information is stored. Soit's entered into the information
into the platform. It's storedin the platform. And, you know, our
(35:32):
doctors, our healthprofessionals, ourselves internally
have access to the informationand to the file. So we're monitoring,
and then our folks on theground are following up. Right. So
our team in Honduras isfollowing up with all the children
in Honduras as to where, youknow, when their next session is,
what the next stage is, etc.Etcetera. So that's how we monitor
(35:56):
and manage them over time.
So you have an on the groundteam in every country that you serve?
In every country where we helpchildren, yes. There are countries
where we send the children.So, for example, we might send the
child to the cardiac wing at ahospital in Colombia that does incredible
(36:16):
work. And then we'll partnerwith an organization. This year,
we are sending six children toSpain for surgery, and we partner
with a nonprofit in Spain tomanage them on the ground, so to
speak. Right. Pick them up atthe airport, drive them to their
version of Ronald McDonaldHouse or the host family house. Make
(36:37):
sure that they have what theyneed. I mean, you know, we have families
that come up to the US and. Orgo to Philadelphia and Chicago, and
they've never experienced coldweather. So we make sure they have
proper clothing. You know, wemake sure that, you know, they're
well fed. We make sure thatthey show up for all their appointments.
And if they've got to go fromthe residence to the hospital, we
(36:57):
provide the transportation.All of that is taken care of so that
they only worry about thehealth of the child and that the
surgical team is concernedwith the intervention and not the
logistics and the back officestuff and administrative stuff and
operational issues. So we takecare of all of that so that they
(37:18):
can just focus on the healthand well being of the child. And
these guys, I mean, they. Wehad a surgical team recently that
went out into a facility thatran out of blood. So my country director
sends me a picture of the twosurgeons sitting on a chair, giving
their own blood so that theycan use the blood on the patients
(37:39):
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, wereally care about the children so
much that there isn't a lot ofego. Ego. You know, it's like, hey,
hello, hetal? Yes. Listen,I've got this scoliosis condition
(38:02):
and we can't fit him in. Doyou 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 Johnover at that organization? He might
have some room.
I did want to mention thatsomebody that I interviewed very
early on, his name is DoctorBriji. Doctor Witham Bridgie. He
(38:23):
is the founder of BrijiScientific, and they focus on neonatal
mortality in low and middleincome countries. It would just be
awesome for you guys to talk.He and his team invented a neonatal
incubator that is reusable anddisposable. It is, like, incredible.
(38:45):
Nick Yu is actually a big partof what we do, and it is a priority
for us into the future, is todevelop a global program based on
what we're doing in NICUtoday. So, yeah, happy to connect
and have a conversation.
I think he was the thirdepisode on the podcast, so it's out.
You can definitely go check itout, you know, for the future. Where
(39:10):
are you looking to go next?Like, what are your goals?
Um, I'd like to go on aholiday next.
Nice. I'm sure you. Somebodylike you, you know.
You know, I'm, um. It's. I'm.I will continue to work in this space.
(39:31):
Um, you know, I. I want tocontinue working until I can. And
I want to continue workingwith children until I can. Anything
that has to do with the causeof children. Because when, you know,
and this goes back to yourquestion of earlier, how do you go
from film to healthcare? It'sreally understanding what your core
competencies and capabilitiesare and how well those align with
(39:54):
the needs that you're lookingor considering. Right, right. And
I didn't need to be a healthexpert. We've got health expertise
in this organization. Right.But what the board wanted was this
organization to evolve and todevelop and to mature. So it was
a wonderful organization. Itstill is a wonderful organization.
(40:15):
But if I can equate it tosomeone growing up. Right. So you
go from adolescence tomaturity. Right. And so it's that
progression that the boardwanted to accomplish. What's the
next stage? And that's thekind 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 samevein. I want to focus on things that
(40:39):
have to do with children. Iwant to work with the cause of children,
and it's got to be obviouslysomewhere where I can add value and
have impact. Hopefully, thiswill be, you know, my final. The
final chapter in Vafa's bookis all about kids.
I absolutely love that.
Yeah.
Thank you, Bafa, for coming tothe podcast.
(41:01):
Thank you for the invitation,et al. It was great to meet you,
and I'm so excited that myfirst podcast was with you and with
world pediatric project. Imean, that's an incredible milestone
that I will keep close to myheart. Thank you.
Thank you for listening tothis episode. If you'd like to learn
more about today's topic andguest, head over to the show notes
(41:22):
LinkedIn in the description ofthis episode. There you can get access
to resources, links, and waysyou can get involved in the pursuit
for global health. And if youloved this episode, don't forget
to write me a review on Applepodcasts and rate the podcast on
Spotify. It helps me get infront of more people just like you
and continues to elevate thecauses we are so passionate about.
(41:45):
I'll see you in the next one.
Welcome back to the GlobalHealth Pursuit podcast. I'm your
host, Hetal Bahman, and todayI'm thrilled to revisit a powerful
conversation I had with VafaAkhavan, CEO of World Pediatrics,
formerly known as WorldPediatric Project. This episode originally
aired over a year ago, so forall of you newer listeners, it's
(00:24):
a fantastic introduction tothe incredible work that world pediatrics
is doing. And for those of youwho've been with us from the very
beginning, I think that you'llenjoy this nostalgic throwback. Next
week, I'll be dropping aspecial episode sponsored by orthopediatrics,
where we'll explore theimportance of partnerships in advancing
(00:45):
global health, especially fororganizations like world Pediatrics.
So this replay will set thestage perfectly, reminding us of
the vital impact that VAFA andhis team are making in pediatric
care for underservedcommunities. Whether you're hearing
it for the first time or youjust want a refresher, this episode
(01:08):
will bring you right up tospeed before next week's deep dive
into the power ofpartnerships, let's jump right in.
Here's my conversation withVafa Akhavan, CEO of World Pediatrics.
According to a 2022 article inthe Pediatric Surgery International
(01:28):
Journal, only 3% of childrenin low income countries have access
to surgery. This number jumpsto 85% of children when it comes
to high income countries likethe US. So what does this mean? It
means that in low and middleincome countries, many common and
otherwise easily treatableconditions, such as appendicitis
(01:51):
or long bone fractures inchildren could result in death or
a lifelong disability. Now weknow that the surgical needs of children
differ greatly from that ofadults. Each child needs customized
care, whether it's a simplefracture of the femur or a complex
craniofacial deformity. Ontoday's episode, we'll be exemplifying
(02:14):
the work of World PediatricProject, a nonprofit that is closing
the gap in access to specialtymedical care for children in Latin
America and the Caribbean.We'll be learning from Vafa Akhavan,
World Pediatric Project'schief executive officer. Vafa bring
a wealth of executiveleadership experience, including
(02:36):
a career of working withcomplex global organizations across
seven industries in 16different countries. He served as
CEO at Newbridge, a globalconsultancy. He was also CEO at Forum
Corporation consultancy inBoston, and the vp of global operations,
information and media for a ofMcGraw Hill in New York. Vafa also
(03:00):
serves on the board ofdirectors of Children Believe, a
global nonprofit focused onthe health and well being of children
in underserved communitiesduring this conversation, we'll be
learning about how Vafa'spassion for advocating for children
grew over time. We talk aboutwhat it was like going from a career
of filmmaking to consulting tothe children's nonprofit healthcare
(03:23):
space. And ultimately, we diginto the mission of World pediatric
project and how its incrediblyunique model serves children with
the most difficult surgicalchallenges. As Vafa says, children
are 30% of the population, buttheyre 100% of the future. My name
is Hetal Bahman, and this isthe global health pursuit. Vafa,
(03:50):
thank you for coming onto thepodcast. It is such a pleasure to
have you here, and especiallysince you just. We were just talking
about it. This is your firstpodcast interview. So very, very
excited.
Yeah, thank you, Hetal. It'swonderful to be here. Yeah. Obviously,
you know, podcast is such animportant part of community and society
today, and I'm really excitedabout this being my first one, particularly
(04:15):
because it has to do withsomething I'm very passionate about.
So thank you for inviting meand making the time.
Of course. So, as always, Iuse a question that is a little bit
broad. I listened to a podcastby Brene Brown, and she oftentimes
will ask her guests what theirstory is.
Sure.
And you can take it as farback as you want.
(04:37):
Well, I mean, you know, Ioften think about how. How do I talk
about a life that has beenblessed with richness? And I think
of it very much like atapestry. Because I was born in Iran.
I was raised up high. I wentto England for school, then I went
(04:59):
to Canada. Then I went to theUS, and then back to Canada, now
back to the US. I've workedin, I think, about 15 or 16 different
countries. I've worked inseven different sectors. I've worked
from startup to conglomerates.Always the constant has been this
notion of service and havingimpact, irrespective of the environment.
(05:22):
There's always been thisnotion of giving back to the community.
And so it's difficult to talkabout a background that has that
kind of richness as opposedto, you know, I lived in the United
States, and I worked withMicrosoft for 35 years, and then,
you know, I retired. So it'sreally been a wonderful journey.
(05:45):
The story is very rich. Manychapters in the book, the experiences
of working in so manycountries, working with so many different
people from differentcultures, from different socioeconomic
background, from the frontline of a conglomerate to meeting
with the prime minister of acountry or the health minister of
a country. And the learnings,you know, the reservoir or the treasury
(06:10):
of learnings that you can gainfrom that kind of a life experience
is incredibly precious. And Iwould encourage all people, especially
the younger generation, tolive a life that gives you that richness,
because the perspective thatyou have will be the perspective
that's necessary for advancinghumanity into the future.
(06:31):
I agree. The episode thatactually released this week, it's
April 27. I actuallyinterviewed a south asian therapist
graduate student. So we talkeda lot about the intricacies of mental
health stigma within southasian culture.
Yes. Not just that culture.
Oh, of course. I know it spansmultiple, multiple cultures. But
(06:56):
she did say, you really can'tlive 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, myparents are first immigrants from
India, and what they wanted meto be is doctor. Right. But that's
not really fulfilled me, ofcourse. Right. They feel as if that's
(07:17):
the highest achievement. ButI'm trying to find my own way because
that's nothing. That's notnecessarily what fulfilled me. And
so I'm glad to hear that youhad mentioned that you were a filmmaker,
and I want to kind of go intothat a little bit, because I think
it's just so interesting goingfrom filmmaking to working as the
(07:38):
CEO of World PediatricProject. Tell me. Yeah, I want to
ask you that because I thinkit's so, so interesting.
Well, I mean, I always had,and I still have a passion for film
and television as a medium totransform community. And so when
I was going, and likeyourself, I was brought up in a.
(08:02):
Even though my parents were,you know, very. For their generation,
they were very forwardthinking. They were very global,
had seen the world alreadywhen my brother and I were born.
But still, they were kind oftraditional. Doctor, lawyer. And
there's a hierarchy. Right.It's like doctors are at the top.
Right, right.
(08:22):
Doctor, lawyer, engineer,engineer, and then maybe architect.
Right.
Oh, really?
Oh, yeah. We have architectson 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 thatwas enough.
Yeah, sure. So, no, I mean,my. My parents were no different
(08:43):
than others. They really loveyou, and they want the best for you.
Right. And it's. And it'sbased on their experience. But I
was on this track of, youknow, I wanted to be a part of transformation.
I wanted to make acontribution to changing communities
and to elevating the humancondition. That was always a constant
for me, whether it was in mywork, in my career, with the teams
(09:03):
that I worked with or theglobal organizations I was with or
the volunteer work that I wasdoing. It was always focused on how
do we elevate the humancondition? And so film, to me, I
had a passion for it, and Isaid, well, I can study film, become
a filmmaker, and then tellstories that elevate the human condition,
that help people gain greaterinsight, become more familiar with
(09:25):
the global nature of humanity,that, you know, the world is one
country and mankind itscitizens, and what is common between
us. That was my passion. So Iwent into film, and I remember the
university that I went to atthe time, York University, was the
only university in Canada thathad a film program. If I remember
correctly, there was somethinglike around 1700 applications from
(09:48):
around the world. Every yearat the time, they accepted about
a 120 into first year, it wasa four year program. And by fourth
year, from that, roughly 1700to 121st year in the. And every year,
they would cut. So when theywould cut, you either made it to
the next year in production oryou would go into film studies. So
(10:13):
those were two distinctprograms at the university. So I
continued making. In the finalyear, 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 myfourth year, I just find out that
I'm one of 14 that isadvancing to final year. And I was
really proud of that. And Iwas talking to my parents, and my
(10:33):
dad said, I'm making a longstory short. He said, are you sure
you don't want to transfer to business?
Of course, of course.
You know, I mean, I've alwaysloved him. He's always been my hero.
But so I definitelyunderstand, you know, that aspect
of the culture. But what Ilearned early was that one has to
(10:58):
make decisions, and one has,and there are consequences to all
of those decisions. The waythat I learned to make decisions
is to really be clear aboutwho you are at the core and what
you want to accomplish at thecore. And so then the way in which
(11:20):
that is expressed becomessecondary. So I realized that it
didn't have to be, you know,it didn't have to be just through
that medium that life willchange and your conditions may change.
Your situation may change, thesituation and conditions around you
may change. So, you know, doyou want to be so dogmatic or so
(11:42):
fanatical about a particularmedium for the expression of your
beliefs, or do you want to becommitted to your beliefs and be
open to how they getexpressed? So it doesn't matter what
job you have really does it, Imean, it's important, but to me that
became secondary. So I wasalways looking for the opportunity
to learn and to move. And lifehappened. I moved from film and television.
(12:05):
I was very excited. We did thefirst IPO. We cleared the first IPO
in Canada for a film fund. Itwas 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 adifferent job. And from there it
led to, you know, moving toboutique consulting firm in Florida.
(12:27):
And then from there I went toJD Power, and then JD Power got acquired
by McGraw Hill, and then theymoved me to McGraw Hill. And from
McGraw Hill I went, you know,an opportunity came my way. I was
approached to be the CEO atthe Forum corporation, which was
a global consulting firm. Nowit's a part of corn Ferry, you know,
and so life just happened,right? And it's this notion of what
(12:50):
am I about at the core? Andcan that be expressed irrespective
of what the opportunity is orirrespective of where I am, what
company I work for, whatposition? Because I've never believed
you are defined by your rank,your title, your position, or your
material well being or notwellbeing. That, to me, is not what
(13:13):
defines a person. And then Imoved back to Canada, and I was with
Newbridge, which is, again,back to the consulting profession.
And I knew that I wanted togive back in a more substantive way
through nonprofit. So I joinedthe board of Children believe, which
is a global nonprofit basedout of Canada. And that's been incredible.
(13:35):
I'm still on the board. Andthen I was approached about this
position, which is anincredible, incredible opportunity,
so aligned with what I'minterested in doing, because I want
to focus on children.
Did you first get thatinterest when you were approached
to be on the board forchildren's belief?
I think I was born with thatinterest in children. I mean, I married
(13:55):
very young because I wanted tohave children at a young age. I was
always giving back to thecommunity in terms of being involved
with children and childrenclasses in the Baha'I community,
I was always teachingchildren's classes, and then I was
teaching junior youth classesand mentoring, you know, the young,
the junior youth and theyouth. So it was always. I. I didn't
(14:17):
articulate it this way untilrecently, but the way I articulate
it now is that children arethe future. So if you want to impact
the future and you want to bestrategic about it, then focus on
the children, because, youknow, children are 30% of the population,
but they're 100% of thefuture, and we can see what the adults
of today are doing to theworld. So maybe we can focus on the
(14:38):
children so that as we impacttheir life and the way they think
and the way they makedecisions in a positive way, have
them focus on the unity of theworld as opposed to the division
of the world, then they willgrow up and they will make decisions.
No matter better decisions, nomatter what profession they are or
what life choices they make,they'll be able to make better decisions
(15:01):
for the future of humanity.And you do that, one generation,
two generations, threegenerations, then you'll have a different
world.
I think we're already seeingthat with Gen Z.
Yes, I think so.
And something, the way thatyou spoke about your journey, it
almost reminded me of anotherconversation that I had where she
said, the universe is driving,and I'm just getting on the bus.
(15:22):
Right.
And wherever it stops iswherever I get off, and that's my
next opportunity. And it'slike, I'm not Christian, but it's
like the Jesus take the wheel thing.
Well, listen. Yeah. It's abelief system, right? And if the
belief system is conducive tothe betterment of humanity, that
(15:42):
it's the cause of unity in theworld, as opposed to the cause of
discord in the world, theneveryone is, you know, people that
are interested in that will beon board. It doesn't matter what
you call it, what you labelit. Right, right. Those people are.
Those are the ones that youwant to surround yourself with that
are the cause of unity, thatare the cause of joy and happiness
and elevation. And if youcan't make that distinction, that's
(16:05):
a different problem to solve.
So you are the CEO of WorldPediatric Project? It is a nonprofit
that focuses on the surgicalneeds of children all over the world.
What brought you into thespace of healthcare? Yeah, that's
because I feel like it's very,very different. You know, filmmaking
and then consulting and thenon healthcare.
(16:26):
Sure. I have several relativesthat are medical professionals, and
I have some very good friendsthat are medical professionals. One
of them is a neurosurgeon inToronto, and my cousin is a doctor
in the Amazon. And when I toldthem that this is a position I'm
taking, and they were alllike, what?
What?
(16:48):
No, look, yeah, I mean, it'snot a traditional thing, right? When
I first got the specificationdocument about the position, I've
had a long enough career and awide enough set of experiences to
be able to determine what aboard of directors is looking for
just, or what a hiring manageris looking for just by virtue of
(17:09):
reading the spec doc, right.The specification document, I can
tell you. So my initialresponse was, they're not going to
want to talk to me. And I toldthe recruiter, you know, they're
probably looking for a WorldHealth Organization executive or,
you know, someone from, Idon't know, care or I UNICEF, or
(17:29):
someone that's been in the field.
Save the children, etcetera.
Right. A surgeon, a doctor inpublic health, etcetera. And he basically
convinced me that I shouldtalk with, with the nominations committee
because they were reallyinterested in something different.
And I said, do they know whatthat means? There's a lot of people
that say, we want somethingdifferent, we want someone different.
(17:51):
We want someone that's achange agent. And then they hire
a very kind of a classicperson for that job. They'll hire
somebody who's done that jobsomewhere else very well and bring
them in. I was intrigued bythe surgery. That's what really intrigued
me, because we are pediatricsurgery, but we're tertiary pediatric
(18:13):
surgery, so it's not primaryor secondary. We handle the most
difficult of the difficultcases. So imagine a child that's
got 140 degree bend in theirspine, or imagine a child that essentially
has two mouths, two noses, anda big hole in the middle of their
face. These are verycomplicated, very difficult cases
(18:36):
to do. And I've always beendrawn to the extremes. There's lots
of great organizations that dogreat work, you know, delivering
food, delivering education,delivering vaccines, helping transform
communities, etc. Etc. But themost difficult situations, et al,
(18:56):
are the easy ones to neglectand to overlook because they are
the difficult. Right. So thatattracted me, the fact that it, the
surgery to me, was a triggerevent in the life of the child. I
love the notion of triggers,like, so if you look for yourself
in your life, you willprobably be able to identify certain
(19:20):
trigger events or triggerdecisions that had a long lasting
ripple effect. Right?
Oh, yeah.
And the surgery to me is thatfor that child and that family, I
mean, we have one, one child,Claudia Garcia, who's two and a half
hours outside of Tegucigalpain Honduras. Right. Severely deformed
when she was born. Her handsare deformed. Nothing can be done
(19:40):
for her hands. Both her legshad to get amputated. She had to
have two open heart surgeries,and she's had one spinal surgery,
and she will need another twospine surgeries. Right. Her grandfather
used to carry her on his backfrom their house, which is outside
the village to the villageschool so she could get educated,
and then he would carry herback. Well, a few years ago, the
(20:03):
grandfather passed away, soshe's not getting any education.
And the parents, the parentsare not able to take care of her.
Her grandmother takes care ofher. We're working with her. Right.
That's an example of tertiarycare. It's an extreme situation.
Right. But let me tell youwhat happened on my last visit to
her, which was literally amonth and a half ago. So we're in
(20:25):
a van. There's five of us fromthe organization going to meet her,
to visit with her. It's, youknow, it's, you have to drive on
the highway. So it's a fourlane highway. Then you get on a two
lane asphalt highway. Then youget on a dirt road for an hour. Then
you get on something that'ssupposed to be a road. It's not a
road. Then you park the carand you walk to get to their house.
(20:46):
Okay?
Yeah.
So we're getting close to herplace. 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 directorin Honduras gets out. I'm at the
back of the line. I'm driving.I'm back at the line. She goes to
(21:08):
where the demonstration is, Ithink probably about 1012 minutes
later, she calls me and says,okay, come on through. So I get into
the other lane and I'm drivingdown, and everybody who's parked
is giving me dirty looks like,who are you? We know that a couple
of trucks honk their horn atme. I just went through and I got
to the first blockade andthere was lots of cars and there
(21:30):
was people moving the carsapart. It was like, it was a scene
out of the tank.
Yeah.
You know, the waters. The carsare parting ways. We're going through.
They're parting the red sea.
Yeah, they're parting all ofthe cars. And we go through and we
get to the middle, and there'slots of people in the middle walking
around and demonstrating andso on. And then I've got to stop.
I stop, and then this elderlylady comes, opens the door and literally
(21:53):
pulls me out and startshugging me. And then another elderly
lady comes and starts huggingme. And they were basically thanking
us for the work that we do intheir community. Right. Then we go
to the other side of theblockade, because now we need to
exit the blockade and go out.And the gentleman comes up and I'm
stopped, I'm waiting. And thegentleman comes and starts moving
(22:15):
people around and the car'sout of the way and he opens the way
and he thanks me with a motionof his hand and, you know, lots of
tears throughout all of this,of course.
Right?
And so Ileana gets in the carand 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. Iwent to the leader and I said, we
need, you know, to getthrough. And he said, why do you
(22:36):
need to get through? She said,I told him that we were going to
visit Claudia Garcia. And hesaid, are you the organization that's
taking care of her? And Ileanasaid, yes. And he said, okay, we'll
open up the blockade. Right.
Wow.
So the work that we did withIleana was impacting the community.
Right. It created this bond.It created a sense of unity. It creates
(22:59):
this sense of appreciation.It's really causing the community
to aspire to a higher order iswhat I call it. Right. So that trigger
event, the surgery, willchange 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
(23:19):
when I was looking at this,you know, being here at world Pediatric.
I said, wow, imagine theripple effects of all of those trigger
events.
Right? And, you know, hergetting the care means that she could
get the education that sheneeds. That could also help.
Oh, she is, yeah. Imagine thatperson with those kinds of conditions
(23:43):
being able to become anindependent, income earning woman
in her community. That'sprofound. That is profound. And to
also be able to help herfamily, 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 hasInternet. She has transportation
(24:04):
to the school, back and forth.And she was smiling so much and laughing
when I was there. And hergrandmother said, I have not seen
her smile or laugh in fiveyears. How do I beat that when I'm
working at, you know, McGrawhill in New York? I mean, it's wonderful.
I mean, that was a wonderfulexperience and it was wonderful.
We achieved great things, butnothing comes close.
(24:26):
I think it's just, you know,everyone's priorities are different.
Sure.
Your priorities are to createunity, and it's just so nice to hear.
So in terms of the model ofworld pediatric project, how is that
connection to Claudia actuallyable to be made?
Yeah. Great question. So WorldPediatric project has been around
(24:50):
for 20 years. So over thoseyears, it has developed presence
in eleven countries. And youcan imagine that over those 20 years
you're building an ecosystem,a network, a network of pediatricians,
a network of hospitals, anetwork of suppliers, a network of
(25:11):
surgeons, a network of donorsand contributors. So you have this
incredible network that you'vedeveloped over the years, and then
the model begins to emerge.Right out of everybody doing good.
And beginning with, we'regoing to send a team of surgeons
and nurses down to St. Vincentand we're going to do ten spine surgeries
or whatever, and then we'regoing to come back. Wonderful. That's
(25:33):
great. That was the beginning.Where we are today is we have a presence,
as in people on the ground. Inthose eleven countries, we have a
network of pediatricians thatrefer children to us because they
know us. We have social mediapresence, which means we are found
by parents that are looking,and we have relationships with partners
(25:58):
in the field. So either thepartner will refer or they will tell
the parent to contact usdirectly. And it's a wonderful community.
So we have this networksthat's developed and that's how the
children come to us. Right. Wehave a model whereby there are clinics,
and in these clinic days orclinic events, the children will
(26:19):
come and our professionals aredown there and they will assess the
children. They'll look attheir file and they will look at
their condition, they willprepare an intervention plan for
them, what they need to do.And then if the surgical team starts
the day after, then they'refit into the surgery schedule right
there on the spot. If it's anextreme case, they will be brought
(26:40):
to the United States, wherethe capacity for highly specialized
surgery is greater than insome of these countries. So that's
been the model up to now. Andwhat's the particularly unique about
world pediatric project isthat when the child enters the system,
they are with us until they're21. So they enter our platform and
(27:03):
we are monitoring and managingtheir health until they're 21, which
is, you know, for, for usanyways. It's the demarcation for
going into the adult program.So they move into the adult care
community because a lot of theconditions, as you can imagine, a
lot of the conditions thatwe're treating are continuous. It's
like the child is growing,right? The child is growing and changing
(27:24):
physiologically. And so itneeds 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 thisfocus on building to building capacity
(27:44):
and sustainability into ourmodel. So the notion of, you know,
one of our surgeons going downto St. Lucia for surgery and us bringing
nine surgeons from across theCaribbean to spend four days with
our surgeon, so training thesurgeons that are there. Right? So,
(28:06):
and then another example ofthat, there are great, great surgical
facilities around the world.For example, a fantastic cardiovascular
surgical facility inTegucigalpa, which is at par with,
you know, any tier onehospital in the United States or
anywhere else. So, okay, so ifwe've got a child that's in Nicaragua
(28:29):
or in Colombia or somewhereclose by, why do we need to bring
them to the United States whenwe can get them to the care much
faster there? So that'sanother way of helping to build capacity,
because, as you can imagine,you've got to practice your specialty,
which means you've got to haveenough cases so that you can practice
(28:49):
that specialty, so you canbuild proficiency and expertise and
so on. So that's another partof our strategy as we're moving forward.
And then ultimately we'relooking to transform pediatric health
systems. So what does thatmean? So we're partnering with Hospital
Maria in Teguca, Galpa, as anexample to help build that hospital
(29:12):
into a center of pediatricexcellence for Honduras and for the
region. So, you know, we'resticking to the core because the
need is so great and we'readding this layer of capacity building
and sustainability. There are450 million children in the world
under the age of five thatdon't have access to safe surgery.
(29:33):
450 million that don't haveaccess to safe surgery. I mean, that's
incredible. There are two anda half million babies that pass away
during the neonatal periodaround the world. I'll give you some
specific data. Guatemala loses4500 babies a year during the neonatal
(29:54):
period. The average lifeexpectancy in Guatemala is 74.5 years.
Right. That's 340,000 years oflife lost every year in Guatemala.
340,000 years of life are lostin Guatemala every year. Economically,
that's about $4 billion overthat 75 year period. Every year losing
(30:20):
$4 billion over a 75 yearperiod, assuming your gdp per capita
stays constant. I know, I knowthat's a big assumption, but just
directionally, to think of thescale and the scope, I mean, there
are more people dying in theworld because they don't have access
to this. To safe surgery isfive times greater than HIV AIDS,
(30:41):
malaria and tuberculosiscombined. Five times greater. So
that's our model. That's theproblem we're trying to solve.
It's like, if you're listeningto this, it's like, how do you wrap
your brain around all of thisinformation? Those numbers that you
just mentioned, they're justalmost unfathomable.
Yeah. And that's why Iencourage the younger generation
(31:04):
to get that globalperspective, to get that global experience.
That's one of the ways thatyou can appreciate, understand the
scale and scope of globalissues. I mean, you know, give back
in any way that you can.That's wonderful.
Right?
That's wonderful. Helping yourlocal community. When was the last
time, just to your listener,ask yourself this question. When
(31:26):
was the last time you sat downwith a homeless person on the street,
on the concrete, on thestreet, and shared a meal with that
person and had a conversationwith that person, asking them about
their life? I know you've gotto be safe and you've got to be secure,
all of those things, but hasanybody thought of doing that? That
can be a very simple way togive back, to bring joy to somebody's
(31:49):
life, even if it's for fiveminutes, ten minutes, because those
are the.
People who feel like they'renot seen.
It's a pebble, right? We'reall pebbles. Some of us are bigger
pebbles. It's not a judgment.It's not important what the size
of the pebble is. It'simportant that you drop your pebble
into the water.
And create the ripple to start.
(32:11):
That's right.
Yeah. Something that youmentioned around social media during
my travels to India and I,Honduras and Southeast Asia. And
within, like, these ruralcommunities, you'll see that people
often have these phones andthey'll have social media accounts
and all of that.
(32:32):
It's amazing.
So it's really interesting tosee that that's also a way that you
can connect with people whomight need these services, et al.
We probably are able toconnect with people more through
Facebook than we do throughtheir cell phones. Like, if we can't,
because there's. There's a lotof rotation of cell numbers and cell
(32:54):
phones in the countries thatwe work in. Right. If we can't find
them, if we dial a number, wecan't find them. We send them a message
on Facebook, because no matterwhere they are, they'll find a way
to access their Facebook. Sowe'll send a message, and then sometimes
we can't find hetal, but weknow, oh, we found Hetal's second
cousin, so we'll contact. Doyou know where he tell is? No, I
(33:17):
don't know where she is. Buther aunt, who's in that other village
might know where she is. Sothen we connect to the aunt. Why
do we need to do that? Becausewe need to make sure that we can
get hetal to the imagingcenter so she can do her MRI or her
ct scan or her x rays so thatwe can get those to the surgeon to
do the work. We do all ofthat. We do all of that to make sure
(33:42):
that the child has the properdocumentation, has the proper background.
Irrespective of where theylive. Irrespective of access, we
make sure that they get it.
Yeah, I mean, irrespective ofaccess. In terms of, like, if they're.
If they're in a super ruralarea where there might be just like,
(34:02):
a small clinic, there mightnot be clinics. I mean, we've heard
of people trekking hours andhours to get to a clinic. Right.
For medical help.
Sure.
Even those people.
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's, youknow, again, I said it's tertiary.
Right. It's those difficultcases that I get drawn to personally.
(34:24):
And that's one of the things Ilove about world pediatric project
is, you know, none of ournames are going to be on a hospital
building, which is wonderfulto have. Thank you very much for
those contributions. Pleasecontinue to make those contributions.
But we've decided that this iswhere we want to work. Right. We've
decided we want to work withthose children that would be the
(34:46):
easy ones to neglect andoverlook because it is so difficult.
So. Okay, so let's useClaudia, for example. You bring her
to the hospital, she gets hersurgery done. Now, there are follow
ups, right? You mentionedfollow ups. And I think within the
nonprofit world, I think thatmonitoring and evaluation is super,
(35:08):
super critical. I mean, firstof all, for donors to keep being
donors and to know that yourprocess works.
Yes.
How do you track and reportpatient follow ups?
So we have a patientmanagement platform where all of
this information is stored. Soit's entered into the information
into the platform. It's storedin the platform. And, you know, our
(35:32):
doctors, our healthprofessionals, ourselves internally
have access to the informationand to the file. So we're monitoring,
and then our folks on theground are following up. Right. So
our team in Honduras isfollowing up with all the children
in Honduras as to where, youknow, when their next session is,
what the next stage is, etc.Etcetera. So that's how we monitor
(35:56):
and manage them over time.
So you have an on the groundteam in every country that you serve?
In every country where we helpchildren, yes. There are countries
where we send the children.So, for example, we might send the
child to the cardiac wing at ahospital in Colombia that does incredible
(36:16):
work. And then we'll partnerwith an organization. This year,
we are sending six children toSpain for surgery, and we partner
with a nonprofit in Spain tomanage them on the ground, so to
speak. Right. Pick them up atthe airport, drive them to their
version of Ronald McDonaldHouse or the host family house. Make
(36:37):
sure that they have what theyneed. I mean, you know, we have families
that come up to the US and. Orgo to Philadelphia and Chicago, and
they've never experienced coldweather. So we make sure they have
proper clothing. You know, wemake sure that, you know, they're
well fed. We make sure thatthey show up for all their appointments.
And if they've got to go fromthe residence to the hospital, we
(36:57):
provide the transportation.All of that is taken care of so that
they only worry about thehealth of the child and that the
surgical team is concernedwith the intervention and not the
logistics and the back officestuff and administrative stuff and
operational issues. So we takecare of all of that so that they
(37:18):
can just focus on the healthand well being of the child. And
these guys, I mean, they. Wehad a surgical team recently that
went out into a facility thatran out of blood. So my country director
sends me a picture of the twosurgeons sitting on a chair, giving
their own blood so that theycan use the blood on the patients
(37:39):
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, wereally care about the children so
much that there isn't a lot ofego. Ego. You know, it's like, hey,
hello, hetal? Yes. Listen,I've got this scoliosis condition
(38:02):
and we can't fit him in. Doyou 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 Johnover at that organization? He might
have some room.
I did want to mention thatsomebody that I interviewed very
early on, his name is DoctorBriji. Doctor Witham Bridgie. He
(38:23):
is the founder of BrijiScientific, and they focus on neonatal
mortality in low and middleincome countries. It would just be
awesome for you guys to talk.He and his team invented a neonatal
incubator that is reusable anddisposable. It is, like, incredible.
(38:45):
Nick Yu is actually a big partof what we do, and it is a priority
for us into the future, is todevelop a global program based on
what we're doing in NICUtoday. So, yeah, happy to connect
and have a conversation.
I think he was the thirdepisode on the podcast, so it's out.
You can definitely go check itout, you know, for the future. Where
(39:10):
are you looking to go next?Like, what are your goals?
Um, I'd like to go on aholiday next.
Nice. I'm sure you. Somebodylike you, you know.
You know, I'm, um. It's. I'm.I will continue to work in this space.
(39:31):
Um, you know, I. I want tocontinue working until I can. And
I want to continue workingwith children until I can. Anything
that has to do with the causeof children. Because when, you know,
and this goes back to yourquestion of earlier, how do you go
from film to healthcare? It'sreally understanding what your core
competencies and capabilitiesare and how well those align with
(39:54):
the needs that you're lookingor considering. Right, right. And
I didn't need to be a healthexpert. We've got health expertise
in this organization. Right.But what the board wanted was this
organization to evolve and todevelop and to mature. So it was
a wonderful organization. Itstill is a wonderful organization.
(40:15):
But if I can equate it tosomeone growing up. Right. So you
go from adolescence tomaturity. Right. And so it's that
progression that the boardwanted to accomplish. What's the
next stage? And that's thekind 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 samevein. I want to focus on things that
(40:39):
have to do with children. Iwant to work with the cause of children,
and it's got to be obviouslysomewhere where I can add value and
have impact. Hopefully, thiswill be, you know, my final. The
final chapter in Vafa's bookis all about kids.
I absolutely love that.
Yeah.
Thank you, Bafa, for coming tothe podcast.
(41:01):
Thank you for the invitation,et al. It was great to meet you,
and I'm so excited that myfirst podcast was with you and with
world pediatric project. Imean, that's an incredible milestone
that I will keep close to myheart. Thank you.
Thank you for listening tothis episode. If you'd like to learn
more about today's topic andguest, head over to the show notes
(41:22):
LinkedIn in the description ofthis episode. There you can get access
to resources, links, and waysyou can get involved in the pursuit
for global health. And if youloved this episode, don't forget
to write me a review on Applepodcasts and rate the podcast on
Spotify. It helps me get infront of more people just like you
and continues to elevate thecauses we are so passionate about.
(41:45):
I'll see you in the next one.
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