In looking to report to the 66 Gift of Life programs around the world, this portion of the Prayer of St. Francis speaks to all of us regardless of our ethnicity, religion, or where we happen to be in this world. Our shared Gift of Life program indeed brings joy where there has been sorrow, it brings hope to families that have only known despair, it gives them faith where only doubt existed, and it brings light to those who have only known the dark realities that their precious child would probably die because of a heart ailment. Those of us privileged to be part of a Gift of Life program not only work to save the lives of children that have no hope and no reason to hope but we are ultimately able to create an incredible joy and harmony for these children, their families, and their communities. We should never forget that the work we do doesn't just transform a life but it transforms families and villages and doctors and nurses and everyday people in countries around the world.
Throughout the past year, Rob Raylman has traveled to a dozen countries, participated in numerous medical missions, met tens of healthcare professionals that give of their time to make missions happen, met hundreds of Rotarians that make Gift of Life the vibrant program it has become, and got the chance to hug hundreds of children that Gift of Life programs saved. While doing so he was able to experience what we do well, what we do not do so well and what we must do in the future for continued success. He has also had the opportunity, first hand, to meet with many of those responsible for the Gift of Life programs that now cover almost 70 Rotary Districts on five continents.
Gift of Life International is your program; the Board of Directors are all active within their own local GOL community and are committed to the goal of helping the most important child in the world – the next child. This past year was one of transition for Gift of Life International. The "Our Hearts Are In…" program has now positioned GOL as a leader in the world of non-governmental organizations that focus on helping children that suffer from congenital heart defects. Our ability of GOLI to mobilize the network of GOL programs and affiliated hospitals to help children in need has gained us great admiration and respect within the NGO community. This newly found awareness has also brought us new partners which have allowed us to reach more children than ever before and, in addition, has allowed us to raise more money so that more children can benefit from Gift of Life care.
GOLI has developed a strong strategy that is paying off. It is essential that we continue to abide by the four basic principles that drive our day to day efforts: (1) maximize the capacity of existing programs; (2) add new programs; (3) develop partnerships with other NGOs; and (4) tell the collective story of GOL. The following report will recount for you the successes of the past year and will also highlight those areas where I feel we need to improve.
The following report will be broken into the following categories: (1) Partnerships,
(2) Reliable Funding, (3) "Our Hearts Are In…" programs, (4) Surgical Missions,
and (5) Program Development. Each category addresses a different aspect of
how our individual GOL programs function and how GOLI interacts with them.
(Please note that I have made a differentiation between the missions that
are conducted during an "Our Hearts Are In …." Initiative and those conducted
independent of those efforts).
Gift of Life International now has 16 strategic global partner organizations and over 80 hospitals with which we are affiliated. GOLI is now positioned to provide hope and care to children that previously we were unable to reach. Our global network has allowed us to increase the influence of Gift of Life. This has allowed us to develop new GOL programs, increase the capacity of existing GOL programs, and attract reliable funding to allow us to create regional sustainable pediatric surgery centers in select areas around the world.
Among the strategic partnerships developed by GOLI are: Fundación Aldo Castañeda in Guatemala, Helping Hands for Honduras in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC, Chain of Hope UK in London, England, Mending Kids International in California, and NECO in New York City.
The major challenge with regard to reliable funding is to attract new "GOLI investors" in 2011 and beyond. The success of "Our Hearts Are In Uganda" and "Our Hearts Are In El Salvador" has provided GOLI with a legitimate record for marketing our organization to significant funding sources (Foundations and Corporations alike). In the ACTIONS SECTION of this report we will address the need for a cohesive marketing strategy and packet that will best position us to successfully attract the funds needed to help more children around the world.
"Our Hearts Are In Uganda" and "Our Hearts Are In El Salvador" has transformed GOLI into a global-force with regard to providing care to children that suffer from congenital heart defects in developing countries. The strategy of focusing the GOL network on one country a year has allowed us to exhibit the collective power we possess to make the difference in a country being able to develop a sustainable pediatric cardiac surgery program. Not only are we able to mobilize our network of Gift of Life programs to help countries in their efforts to reduce the number of children waiting for surgery but we are able to galvanize global awareness to create the context within a country for the development of a sustainable program.
Combined over the past two years, the "Our Hearts Are In Uganda" and "Our Hearts Are In El Salvador" programs have been responsible for the saving of 264 lives (5 children were lost). These children were operated on in 17 different countries at 31 affiliated GOLI hospitals and over 150 individuals or organizations were responsible for funding this effort. The "Our Hearts Are In…" program has been a wonderful vehicle for the: aiding of children, building of sustainable programs and increasing of the awareness globally for GOLI.
In April 2011, the Board of Directors approved Jamaica as the next country
where we will concentrate the "Our Hearts" program. Working in conjunction
with our GOL affiliated programs and Chain of Hope UK, we expect to be able
to operate on many children via surgery in the US and procedures at Bustamante
Hospital in Jamaica.
It is important to differentiate the efforts that are made during missions
conducted as a part of an "Our Hearts Are In…" program and missions that
are conducted outside those efforts. Although training may go on during a
traditional medical mission, the context under which these missions take
place is not conducive to the ultimate development of a sustainable program.
At our Board of Directors meeting we developed criteria for the selection
of a country to support the "Our Hearts Are In…" programs. These criteria
included: a willing hospital administration, a committed Government, a strong
in country NGO and a dedicated health care professional within the pediatric
cardiac program at the target hospital.
The intent of this discussion is not to negate the importance of these missions.
We believe that GOL programs should continue to sponsor such missions in
the future if this is their desire. However, we need to see these missions
for what they are able to accomplish. First and foremost, medical missions
allow GOL to reach the maximum amount of children in need in a certain country.
Additionally, the medical missions provide a certain level of training for
the local teams, depending upon the team conducting the mission.
Based upon internal surveys from GOLI programs around the world, GOLI estimates that over 400 children were operated on during GOL missions in 2010. This is obviously a significant amount of children helped. But we also feel that it is time to differentiate between missions that operate on as many children as possible and missions designed to develop "in country" teams with the capabilities to do the surgeries on their own (with their own government's financial support). As our GOLI moves forward, it will be important for us to utilize both types of missions in order to maximize our existing programs and to reach as many children as possible.
Program development encompasses all 4 of our guiding principles: (1) maximize the capacity of existing programs; (2) add new GOL programs; (3) develop partnerships with other like-minded NGOs; and (4) tell the collective story of GOL. This past year Rob, as Executive Director of this global organization, has visited 18 of our GOL programs. During each visit Rob found vibrant programs working to develop ways to help more children. In many cases local programs are looking at funding missions, adding hospitals within their communities that will operate on children, and participating in the "Our Hearts Are In…" program. More and more the individual programs are becoming aware of the broad network of caring that GOL has become. This is important because they are now being exposed to opportunities for partnering with other programs where in the past they may not have realized this potential. The "Our Hearts Are In…" program has clearly helped in this area.
During the year 2010 we added 8 new GOL programs from 3 separate continents. Moreover, GOL programs: (1) conducted 16 surgical missions and 5 missions as part of the "Our Hearts Are In…" initiatives, (2) provided surgeries to 264 children as part of "Our Hearts Are In Uganda and El Salvador" and (3) added 5 new hospitals to our of affiliates. Unfortunately, we have not received all the surveys back from our existing GOL programs; however, I can estimate that GOL programs world-wide treated over 1,200 this past year alone.
This coming year holds great opportunities for GOLI and our affiliated
GOL programs. With the success of "Our Hearts Are In Uganda and El Salvador"
we should continue to be able to forge strong partnerships with like-minded
NGOs, as well as attract reliable funding. This will allow us to continue
to reach more children and, ultimately, to empower the healthcare professionals
in Uganda and El Salvador to care for their own children. Additionally, we
will continue to gain awareness around the world as an organization that
can galvanize resources to make significant impacts on the number of children
with Congenital Heart Defects that get treated yearly.
We do have a number of challenges that need to be the focus of our efforts in 2011:
It is our true belief that if we stay the course and focus on these above noted items we will continue the growth we have seen in GOLI and our ability to help children with Congenital Heart Defects.