Fund manager Artemis supporting charity providing surgery for children in Africa and Latin America

The charitable trust set up by UK fund manager Artemis Investment Management is supporting the work of a Scottish charity co-founded by one of oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood’s sons that provides surgery for children in Africa and Latin America.

Kids Operating Room (KidsOR) was established in 2018 by husband-and-wife philanthropists Garreth and Nicola Wood, and has installed 50 operating rooms – saying it provides access to safe surgery to 30,000 children a year in low- and middle-income countries.

The Artemis Charitable Foundation is to contribute £25,000 to the organisation in 2022 as part of its bid to support core charities in health, poverty, education and the environment.

KidsOR works directly with medics across Africa and South America to transform hospital spaces, creating child-friendly surroundings and providing specialist equipment. Picture: contributed.

KidsOR also funds the training of paediatric surgeons and anaesthesia providers. Last year, the Artemis Charitable Foundation funded the training of Burundian scholar Dr Alliance Niyukuri – who, along with another trainee, will go on to become the country’s first paediatric surgeons.

Artemis also contributed funding towards a paediatric operating room at AIC Kijabe hospital in Kenya that will be installed this spring.

The charity, which has bases in Edinburgh, Dundee, and Nairobi, aims to have by the end of this decade installed 120 dedicated children’s operating rooms across Africa, providing essential surgery to more than 635,000 children.

Derek Stuart, trustee of the Artemis Charitable Foundation and co-founder of Artemis Investment Management, said: “We are proud to be supporting KidsOR’s aim… The progress the charity has made in only four years is remarkable and we hope our support over the next year will push forward their objective of delivering safer surgery in Africa and Latin America.”

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