400,000 Children Die in Pakistan Evey Year

Averaging over 1,000 deaths per day. That is twice the number caused by the leading global killer, Cardiac Disease, and more than the deaths caused by cancer, and road traffic accidents – COMBINED.

Children’s Emergency Rooms (ER) at public tertiary hospitals are crucial in providing life-saving care to the sickest children. Unfortunately, these ERs frequently face resource shortages and struggle to offer equitable access to quality healthcare.

The inception of ChildLife Foundation traces back to the 2010 super floods, which exposed these shortcomings in Pakistan’s public emergency care system for children. This crisis mobilized philanthropic efforts, ultimately resulting in the establishment of the foundation.

Today, ChildLife has modernized and manages 13 children’s Emergency Rooms in public tertiary hospitals, in partnership with the government. ChildLife’s vision is to ensure that every child can have access to quality emergency care across Pakistan, 24/7 and free of cost.

ChildLife also manages a telemedicine network across 300+ public secondary care hospitals, connecting them with pediatric specialists at ChildLife Telemedicine Control Room through an HD camera and IP phone. This system enables government doctors to receive second opinions from ChildLife’s expert pediatricians, free of cost and 24/7.

Quality Emergency Care Changes Everything

Reduction in Child Mortality Rate

The survival rate of critically ill children has increased considerably in ChildLife-managed ERs. The provision of quality emergency care has resulted in a reduction in child mortality rates across Pakistan. As per UNICEF’s report 2021, the under-5 mortality in Sindh has more than halved, from 104/1000 live births in 2014 to 46/1000 live births in 2019.

Right Treatment at Right Time

By adopting the WHO-recommended Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment (ETAT) model, ChildLife ensures that children coming in with critical condition receive emergency care at the right time. Triage helps prioritise patients based on their critical condition and prevent any delays in provision of emergency treatment to them.

 Preventing Poverty

Emergency Rooms in public tertiary hospitals usually lack necessary resources to provide quality care, forcing patients to turn to private hospitals which in turn puts them into debt trap. Childlife’s mission is to make quality emergency care accesble to children within public hospitals, so they do not fall into the poverty trap.

Capacity Building

ChildLife has been dedicated to the continuous capacity building of its clinical workforce for the past 13 years. With a clear vision in mind, ChildLife strives to create an empowered, competent, and confident team of future pediatricians, working towards making Pakistan a child-safe country.

How Do We Improve Quality of Emergency Care

ChildLife works under a public-private partnership model and modernizes Children’s Emergency Rooms (ER) in public tertiary hospitals. ChildLife ERs operate on a single model which includes an improved infrastructure, 100+ trained staff, life-saving equipment, and a full stocked pharmacy running 24/7 to provide quality emergency care to children, free-of-cost.