The major mission of the Child Health Fund is to accelerate the work of Dr. Rick Hodes. Dr. Hodes is an American-born doctor who has spent nearly three decades treating people in Africa. Every week he sees a wide variety of poor patients of all religions and ethnicities at Mother Teresa's clinic in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Dr. Hodes concentrates on heart disease (rheumatic and congenital), spine disease (TB spondylitis and severe scoliosis), and cancer. He treats these patients and then arranges for free heart surgery in India; free spine surgery in Ghana; and also performs chemotherapy in Ethiopia.
The secondary mission of the Child Health Fund is to raise money for clinical research projects. Clinical research projects funded by the foundation include those that study poverty and disease and factors associated with critical illness.