Connecticut Children’s is committed to providing high quality medical and surgical care to patients living in Connecticut and beyond. However, our organization is also committed to caring for patients and educating providers around the world. We do this through Connecticut Children’s Center for Global Health.
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The mission of Connecticut Children’s Center for Global Health is clear. We strive to improve the health of children living in resource-limited settings by leveraging the compassion, dedication, knowledge and skills of our students, staff and faculty through the development and maintenance of high-quality, sustainable, collaborative capacity-building healthcare partnerships. Through our work, we envision a world where children, regardless of where they reside or where they have come from, have access to high-quality healthcare and live healthy lives. Seven core values guide our work, which include collaboration, innovation, compassion, leadership, excellence, advocacy, and diversity.
Connecticut Children’s Center for Global Health can be most effective by partnering with medical facilities and organizations around the world. We create partnerships that are collaborative and sustainable. Our activities focus on increasing the capacity of local pediatric physicians, nurses and other team members to offer high-quality pediatric healthcare.
The facilities we partner with include St. Damien Pediatric Hospital in Taberre, Haiti; Hospital Bernard Mevs in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Justinien University Hospital in Cap-Haitian, Haiti; NICE Institute in Hyderabad, India; University Teaching Hospital of Rwanda – CHUK in Kigali, Rwanda; Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana and Mengo Hospital in Kampala, Uganda.
Our efforts include in-person visits where we work with local pediatric leadership to develop mission goals based on our partners needs and then make preparations in order to achieve their self-determined goals. To achieve the goals determined by Dr. Renée Alcé, PICU Director at St. Damien Pediatric Hospital, our last trip prior to the COVID-19 pandemic required us to:
Our work also includes innumerable remote sessions, which have been critical to maintaining our partnerships and outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, at Justinian University Hospital (JUH), we conduct monthly reviews of pediatric cases where patients did not survive in order to identify preventable causes of death and to reduce overall pediatric mortality. We also provide monthly neonatal and critical care lectures to residents at Justinien University Hospital, St. Damien Pediatric Hospital and Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, and provide support and guidance in the development of pediatric residency curriculum.
To draw upon more resources and expand our impact even further, we recently partnered with Connecticut Children’s Office of Community Child Health (the Office) as one of its newest programs. We saw this as a natural fit as we are committed to many of the same principles that guide the Office. Those principles include engaging in system building through partnerships at a local level; prioritizing community voice and focusing on the needs articulated by local leadership; valuing local and regional solutions with national (and global) significance; and prioritizing strength-based approaches. Under this partnership, our day to day operations will remain the same however we will tap into expertise in the areas of fundraising, measurement, communications, and other areas that we feel will help to elevate our success and impact.
At Connecticut Children’s Center for Global Health, we are proud to have made a positive impact on the lives of countless children around the world. We look forward to continuing to transform global health care in the years to come.