| Kenneth Shubin Stein |
There are children around the world who lack an age-old, simple tool to get around: crutches. And that lack affects their education, family, community and their ability to create a future for themselves. “These kids are probably the most unlucky children on planet Earth,” says Kenneth Shubin Stein. “They’ve got a serious problem that’s going untreated, and they end up perceived as a burden to their family.”
Shubin Stein, 46, is founder and portfolio manager of Spencer Capital Management, a New York–based, $300 million equity hedge fund, an affiliate of Spencer Capital Holdings. He is also co-founder, along with his orthopedic surgeon sister, Beth Shubin Stein, of Crutches 4 Kids, a nonprofit that distributes donated crutches to children.
A brainstorming session with a friend in 2009 led Ken Shubin Stein to realize there were crutches in America’s garages, basements and attics gathering dust. He also knew there were plenty of children who could put those crutches to good use. About ten million pairs of crutches are purchased each year in the U.S., says Shubin Stein, and approximately 50 million children around the world need crutches but don’t have the means to get them.
“There’s an enormous population of children around the world who have significant unmet needs for mobility assistive devices,” he says.
Crutches 4 Kids gathers unused crutches mainly through donation drives, hospitals and physical therapy offices. After sorting, the crutches are delivered to partner nonprofits, including AmeriCares and MedShare. These humanitarian medical organizations then deliver the crutches to communities around the world. Since Crutches 4 Kids began operations in 2010, the crutches it has gathered have been distributed in 25 countries to more than 8,000 children and some adults, predominantly in African countries and India.
Shubin Stein, who has a background in medical research, says the Crutches 4 Kids model was designed to be small and nimble, which it has managed, in part, by taking advantage of the partner nonprofits’ systems.
“It was really appealing to think we could do this and have a big impact even though we had a small start and we didn’t have a budget when we started,” he says.
Because children who need crutches but don’t have them often spend their days inside their homes, they become invisible. They’re unable to play, help out their families or go to school.
“Part of the tragedy of these children’s situation is that they’re isolated and not given the care they need so they could become productive members of society,” says Shubin Stein. “These kids could go on to lead great, productive, happy lives.”
Many of these children’s disabilities are the result of poverty, violence or natural disasters. They live in areas without medical care and suffer from untreated disease or injuries in regions where there’s violence or the remnants of conflict (according to the United Nations’ annual Landmine Monitor report, there were more than 3,300 land mine–related casualties in 2013, and about 46 percent of those were children). And in areas where a natural disaster has occurred and there wasn’t an existing medical infrastructure, injuries may not get treated correctly, in time or at all. In those situations, says Shubin Stein, “you have a short window medically speaking to address these things. Then patients die or have chronic injuries, and you have to deal with the chronic portion of it.”
Crutches 4 Kids recently expanded its program with a pilot project in the Dominican Republic. The nation’s population is ten million, and about 50 percent of its children live in poverty. In partnership with New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery and the country’s vice president, Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, a Crutches team traveled to the Dominican Republic and distributed 500 purchased crutches. “If we do this well and solve this problem, it’s a great study and it’s a gateway to Central and South America,” Shubin Stein says.
Losing mobility is a major life event, says Louis Shapiro, president and CEO of the Hospital for Special Surgery, who was an early supporter and board member of Crutches 4 Kids. The partnership between the hospital and nonprofit was a fitting alliance of HSS’s work and Shubin Stein’s commitment to health care, Shapiro says. “I think he conducts himself in a way and with a passion that makes you want to join this journey to help kids around the world.”
By employing an efficient solution to a pervasive problem, Shubin Stein hopes that children everywhere will soon get the devices they need.
“We have a global public health problem that’s entirely solvable with today’s medical technology,” says Shubin Stein. “If we all put our minds to it, this problem can be solved in our lifetime.”