Mending Kids gives sick kids life-saving surgical care while advancing education
​and training towards medical sufficiency in their communities.
​Since 2005, we have mended thousands of children in 68 countries, including the US.

countries served

surgical mission trips completed

children mended as of 03/31/2022

UPCOMING EVENTS & programS

In these trying times filled with uncertainty, we have readjusted our mission schedule out of concern for the health and wellbeing of our volunteers and medical teams, and most importantly our immunocompromised cardiac patients. We hope to deploy our teams as soon as it is safe to do so.

Mission Guatemala
March 19 - 25, 2022

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Mission Tanzania
June 13 - 19, 2022

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Nicaragua Cardiac Mission, lead by Dr. Womack: 9/26-9/30/2022
​Tanzania Cardiac: TBD
Peru General Mission, lead by Dr. Duron: 10/22-10/29/2022
Tanzania ARM (anorectal malformation) Mission, lead by Dr. Frischer: 1/19 - 1/31/2023

Hometown Mission Los Angeles 2022
with MemorialCare Outpatient Surgical Center
July 16, 2022

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Hike to Mend!
An ongoing campaign honoring the journey that a parent takes to gain access to surgical care for their child.
Join us in raising awareness of health disparity everywhere. Hike a few miles so that, together, we can provide kids with the life-changing care that they need.

Start Your Hike

2022 Symposium series

6-Part ENT Symposium Series on Ear Surgery and Audiology
 

March 4 - Dr. Ayal Willner:
"Case-Based Overview of Pediatric Audiology Methods"

March 18 - University of Melbourne Audiology Graduate Students:
"How to Read an Audiogram"

April 8 - University of Melbourne Audiology Graduate Students:
"Integrating Audiology Results with Pathologies of the Ear"

April 29 - University of Melbourne Audiology Graduate Students:
"Vestibular Pathologies - Diagnosis and Management"

May 6 - University of Melbourne Audiology Graduate Students:
"Tinnitus Management"

May 20 - University of Melbourne Audiology Graduate Students:
"Play Audiometry"
*All symposia moderated by Dr. Lia Jacobson (UCSF)

Register Now

Annual Report 2020:
If 2020 hindsight and vision taught us anything, it’s that we're always prepared for the unexpected; something we’ve learned from the planning and deploying hundreds of overseas surgical missions over the last 15 years. So in late spring when the world shut down, we stayed open and kept pushing forward.

Click to Read

OUR CORE PROGRAMS

Overseas Surgical Mission

Our assembled surgical teams travel to developing countries on specialized missions to mend children in need of life-saving surgeries, and to train local surgical staff to create sustainable programs.

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Hometown ​Mission

We provide outpatient surgical care to children living in the United States who do not have access to care by teaming with volunteer surgeons, nursing staff and local surgical centers. 

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mend u.s.

Mend US is an expansion of our Hometown Mission Program, which grew out of our recognition that some children from underserved communities across the U.S. are unable to receive the surgeries they need as insurance companies consider these to be “non-life threatening” or “elective” and therefore not covered.
Our Mend US program allows qualifying patients across the United States to have year-round access to outpatient surgeries.

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INDIVIDUAL SURGICAL CARE
- INTL & US

Through partnerships with renowned hospitals, we bring children with complex surgical needs to the United States for treatment. While the child is here, they are placed with a loving host family that cares for all of their needs.
​If surgery is not possible for a child in the United States or on a surgical mission, we arrange surgeries through partnerships with local hospitals in-country or in nearby countries.

want to find out more? interested in joining us on a mission?

Click to fill out an interest form

Training
Research
and
​Innovation

In 2015, the Training, Research and Innovation department was created at Mending Kids. The department promotes effective philanthropy and expands Mending Kids’ mission through research that informs decision-making and program design.

Routine community appraisals and needs assessment, evaluation of programs and partnerships, and data collection and analysis will guide the organization’s strategic growth.
​
Mending Kids is committed to conducting research and collecting data on key surgical
indicators on nearly every mission we deploy, and then using the information gathered
to monitor progress, engage communities, and inform health policies.

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a map of The places we've served...

Since 2005, we have mended children in over 64 countries, including the United States. Zooming on the map and see where we've been!
* Purple markers are countries where we led surgical mission trips in while blue markers are countries where we helped individual patients

CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR RECENT PROGRAM PHOTOS AND ALBUMS