Mending Kids celebrates a milestone

A favorite Malibu charity offers children life-saving surgeries

Awell-known charity supported by many Malibu residents is about to mark a milestone birthday.

Mending Kids is celebrating its 18th year in Malibu with a gala March 18. In addition to another year of providing life-saving surgeries to children around the world, the nonpro t is on track to “mending” its 5,000th patient.

Mending Kids provides life-saving and life-changing surgeries to children worldwide who otherwise cannot a ord treatment or have no access to treatment. e nonpro t has helped children ranging in age from 5 months to 18 years.

“They’re mended through different programs,” said Malibu’s Isabelle Fox, the group’s executive director. “Either through individual surgical care where we bring kids to the United States for free care through partnership with Shriners and other organizations or we send them from one part of the world we can’t reach to a partner hospital in a third country like India or Argentina to get their conditions xed.”

Most often, the children’s ailments are congenital, including heart conditions requiring surgeries. Mending Kids also recruits surgical teams from local hospitals including Cedars-Sinai and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles for surgical missions all over the world. While initial support came from Malibu, the organization is now based in Woodland Hills. rough a network of partner agencies and previous surgical missions, ailing children who need care are identi ed and some are brought to the United States for free care courtesy of Mending Kids. e nonpro t also assesses needs and identi es equipment necessary to facilitate surgeries in the U.S. and globally. e organization then commits to a ve-year annual mission in each location it travels to perform aid. Over the past 18 years, at least two dozen