Our Work
History of BethanyKids
Dr. Richard (Dick) Bransford founded BethanyKids in 2001 during his 30 year career providing surgical care for children in Africa. 
He saw children who could have much better lives through surgical intervention and learned how to care for children with Spina bifida and hydrocephalus. Dr. Dan Poenaru joined BethanyKids in 2003. He is a Canadian pediatric surgeon.
We registered as a charity in the US in 2001 to help in the fund-raising efforts for children’s surgeries and rehabilitation. In 2004 we established a partnership with AIC Kijabe Hospital and created BethanyKids at Kijabe Hospital. We refurbished the pediatric ward and created a self-contained unit within the hospital with full access to one operating room.
We started with 36 pediatric beds, but the volume of patients coming for care required us to grow. We now have 69 beds available for this work. In late 2009 we completed construction on a new operating room, giving us two operating rooms dedicated to the surgical needs of children with disabilities.
