To celebrate the late Dr. Kanishka Ratnayaka’s birthday and perpetuate his work, WCI will make a $25,000 grant to organizations and healthcare researchers dedicated to cutting edge techniques and interventional strategies that will one day improve access to care for children all over the world.
Today, we are facing a pandemic of unbelievable proportions that is affecting all of us. The COVID-19 pandemic hits the very core of our sense of obligation to help people in need. WCI partnered with entrepreneurial youth and their high school Maker Lab, to help them produce 3-D printed face shields for use by doctors and other medical personnel.
Madagascar is one of many countries with a critical lack of essential surgery. To address this deficit, WCI partnered with Operation Smile to develop in-country capacity to perform essential surgical procedures in Madagascar.
Up until 2012, Uganda children who needed routine heart procedures had to wait for international doctors to come to Uganda or be hosted to receive car overseas. Through partnerships with different non-profit prganizations (NPOs), government and companies, WCI helped build and establish the Uganda Heart Institute. In addition to the infrastructure, WCI trained a local team to perform heart procedures without any international assistance.
WCI created the Shanta Fund in honor of the late, Dr. Shanta Ratnayaka, an acclaimed educator, and well-known professor of religious studies at University of Georgia, whose life was dedicated to enriching the minds of young, talented students. WCI partnered with Educate Lanka, a nationally recognized non-profit leader in providing education assistance in Sri Lanka, to fund the Shanta Fund scholarships for enterprising young students who embody Dr. Ratnayaka’s passion for learning.
Based on WCI’s core philosophy of implementing efficient, locally-oriented, and sustainable solutions, WCI partnered with University of Iowa’s Ponseti International Association (PIA) to promote the “Ponseti” project. In line with WCI’s “training to independence” mission, the Ponseti method focuses on training local doctors to employ the low-cost technique, and empowers those local trainees to then train other providers in the region.
WCI’s Project Peds represented the organization’s initial implementation of its sustainable medical development strategy. WCI rejuvenated the pediatric healthcare delivery system by planning and building the new Children’s Hospital at Matara General Hospital to replace children’s health facilities destroyed by the tsunami.