China Daily Global Edition (USA)
For charity foundations, helping the sick is child’s play
When Robert Goodwin walks through a children’s hospital in Beijing, he is shocked to see so many parents and children. As director, corporate affairs and executive director with Mattel Children’s Foundation, the charitable arm of global toymaker Mattel Inc, Goodwin and his team are here to try to make a difference for Chinese children’s healthcare.
Recently, the charity struck a three-year partnership with Beijing Children’s Hospital Group to create spaces for sick children to play. Mattel will supply toys and childhood development materials for this.
The hospital group is a consortium comprising 18 children’s hospitals in China including the Beijing Children’s Hospital, the Anhui Provincial Children’s Hospital, and the Dalian Children’s Hospital.
To start with, the foundation will build 10 play centers in these hospitals where children can play with the toys under the care of child development professionals.
Each of the play centers will be of at least 80 square meters, and the first will be built soon in the Beijing Children’s Hospital.
The foundation will also support treatment for underprivileged chil- dren with development impairments caused at birth, in cooperation with the hospital group.
“A playful environment can help to reduce stress (on children and parents), and also help the child and doctor to bond more quickly,” Goodwin says.
The foundation has built play centers in more than 240 hospitals globally, mostly in the United States, he says, adding the foundation has had a lot of success in showing how play can actually drive better health out- comes, and it wants to share the best practices in child development with Chinese hospitals and organizations.
Besides, in China doctors are stressed as they see too many children on a daily basis, and if children and their families become more calm and relaxed and able to share what’s going on, they will have an improvement in the overall experience for children’s healthcare, says Goodwin.
Born in 1972, Goodwin is a 1994 graduate of the US Air Force Acade- my and a 2007 graduate of Harvard Business School’s general management program.
He used to hold high-level positions at government institutions, including the US Department of Defense, White House, US Agency for International Development and the Department of State, until he decided to work for a charitable organization, because he felt the government takes time to show progress and help individual communities.
He has worked as chief operating officer for International Aid since 2007. International Aid is a healthcare relief and development organization that helps provide safe drinking water to families in need worldwide, as well as training and medical equipment to hospitals and staff.
In 2008, he co-founded and served as the CEO of Executives Without Borders, a non-profit organization through which business professionals and their companies try to make a positive impact in the communities where they operate, while integrating social responsibil- ity into their core businesses.
About two years ago,when Mattel approached him, Goodwin did research and felt that he could contribute to the foundation’s effort to help children around the world.
He said his childhood experience of dealing with a lot of loss, such the death of his father affected his life and career choices.
“What I found is that when I served others having bigger problems than what I was facing, that put my own problems into perspective,” he says.
“I have traveled to more than 60 countries in my life, and I found that many people have good intentions…but many of them didn’t know how to scale up their programs and they didn’t know how to implement them effectively.
“Throughout my career, I have believed that business can be the greatest factor to improve our planet... Mattel can put together not only the money, but also the expertise, and its global network and its products. That is when magic can happen in term of helping children.”
Ni Xin, president of the Beijing Children’s Hospital Group, says the hospital group feels excited to work with international companies, such as Mattel, to improve children’s healthcare and development in China.