Scotland-born charity reaches global goal five years early
A world-leading surgical charity is marking a major milestone in its efforts to transform global access to children’s surgery, celebrating the opening of both its 100th and 101st dedicated operating rooms.
Kids Operating Room, headquartered in Edinburgh, will hit its 100th operating room on Tuesday 24 June with the opening of a new high-tech and specialised surgical theatre in Gaborone, Botswana.
Just two days later, the team is set to open its 101st facility in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, underscoring the rapid pace and sustained impact of the charity’s work.
The charity, founded in 2018 by husband-and-wife, Garreth and Nicola Wood MBE, set a bold target to install 100 operating rooms for children in low and middle-income countries by 2030. That goal has now been met five years ahead of schedule.
Its paediatric rooms, often the only specialised spaces for children’s surgery in a country, have to date enabled more than 680,000 life-changing operations, across Africa, South and Central America, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Dr Kutlo Moalosi, Head of Paediatric Surgery at Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone, said: “This new operating room will be truly life-changing for children in Botswana. It allows us to treat conditions earlier, avoid complications and help children grow up healthy and strong.
“More than that, it provides hope. It signals that children here matter just as much as children anywhere else in the world.”
Nicola Wood, Co-Founder, said: “To have completed 100 dedicated operating rooms is a deeply emotional moment for all of us.
“This is not just a number. It represents lives saved, disabilities prevented and a global movement that believes every child deserves access to safe surgery.”
The 100th operating room was made possible by the philanthropic support of entrepreneur Steve Lansdown and his wife, who have been central to the charity’s wider surgical initiative across Botswana.
Each Kids Operating Room is designed to create capacity for around 2,000 lifesaving or life-changing operations every year. The global network now enables approximately 200,000 procedures annually.
Working across more than 40 countries, Kids Operating Room has embedded permanent surgical infrastructure, trained clinical teams, and delivered vital resources to regions where paediatric surgical care was previously unavailable or inconsistent.
As well as providing the infrastructure for safe surgery, the charity ensures its operating rooms are uplifting and child-focused, with colourful murals and specialist paediatric surgical equipment designed to create a calming environment.
The charity’s approach is centred on sustainability and local empowerment. Its solar-powered surgical systems help hospitals operate safely during blackouts and its training model builds long-term capacity in each region.
Garreth Wood, Co-founder and Executive Chairman, said: “When Nicola and I founded Kids Operating Room, it was with a vision that no child should suffer or die simply because they were born in the wrong place.
“This milestone shows what can be achieved through collaboration, local leadership and relentless commitment. But we are not stopping here and have already re-focused on how we build on this success so no child is left behind.
“We believe surgery is not a luxury, it’s a fundamental right. The children we serve deserve dignity, opportunity and care. This is the work we’ll continue to do until every nation can provide for its children independently.”
David Cunningham, Chief Executive at Kids Operating Room added: “Since we began this work, every 27 days our team has opened a new operating theatre, always in complex and/or low-resource settings. These are world-class, solar powered surgical facilities but before they’re deployed the hospitals have to be surveyed, the staff interviewed, the patient demand assessed and the funds raised. Then, despite often working around conflict and natural disasters, our amazing people build amazing facilities. I could not be more grateful to everyone who has contributed to this success and look forward to continuing to scale that impact in the years to come.
For more information, please visit: https://www.KidsOR.org/
