It is with the heaviest of hearts that we have learned of the passing of Dr. Krubin Naidoo, Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital, and an early Board Member of the Boikanyo Foundation.

Dr. Naidoo joined The Boikanyo Foundation’s board in its early days, around 2009, bringing his expertise and unwavering commitment to improving children’s heart health across Africa. His vision and dedication helped shape our foundation’s mission.

When The Boikanyo Foundation formalized its partnership with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in 2018, Dr. Naidoo’s was instrumental in developing our partnership agreement, ensuring that our contribution was 100% allocated to measurable outcomes in saving children’s lives.

In 2019, when we approached NMCH with an audacious fundraising idea designed to have global reach, Dr. Naidoo wasted no time in joining our project planning sessions. He worked tirelessly to secure backing from the public health sector, media sector, and the National Department of Health for our transcontinental initiative.

Whenever we needed information, a contact, a compelling story, or simply a doctor in our corner, Dr. Naidoo was there. He wasn’t doing it for us, nor for his own recognition, but for the hundreds of thousands of under-represented children across Africa.

Dr. Naidoo’s contribution to children’s health, their futures, and ensuring that families remained intact is truly immeasurable. In the few years we worked together, he selflessly performed life-saving heart surgeries on hundreds of children, all funded through the generous support of donors working alongside our foundation.

We will miss Dr. Naidoo profoundly, both on a personal level and as an irreplaceable partner in our mission to save children’s lives. His compassion, expertise, and unwavering commitment to Africa’s most vulnerable children will forever inspire our work.

To Dr. Naidoo’s colleagues at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital, may your vital mission continue in the spirit that he embodied daily. To his family, we offer not only our deepest sympathy but also our most heartfelt gratitude for sharing him with Africa’s smallest and neediest patients.

Farewell, Dr. Krubin Naidoo. Rest in Peace.

Your legacy lives on in every child’s heartbeat you helped restore, every family you kept whole, and every life you touched with your extraordinary dedication to healing.