Interplast Plans to Expand in Five Countries

Sara Anderson - director, communications and public education: In the upcoming 2007 fiscal year, Interplast has the opportunity to expand and serve needs in Ethiopia, China, Ghana, India and Mali. Expanding in these regions of the world will allow Interplast to reach thousands more children in need of our services and provide valuable education and outreach programs for local physicians and surgeons.

China:

Before and After
Originally uploaded by interplast.

The World Health Organization estimates there are approximately 35,000 babies born every year in China with cleft lip and/or palate. China has an ample supply of skilled doctors and nurses, but impoverished families, especially those from rural regions, simply cannot afford the medical help their children require. In China, Interplast plans: to eliminate all existing cleft lips and palates in the BeiBei area of Chongqing in the next five years; expand its medical education and empowerment programs in Chongqing and in Yunnan province’s capital, Kunming; and provide life-changing surgeries in Kunming.

Africa:

Mother and Child With Cleft
Originally uploaded by interplast.

Since 1999, Interplast has worked in perhaps the most challenged continent in the world: Africa. For more than six years, the international humanitarian organization has supported the Interplast Surgical Outreach Center in Lusaka, Zambia, providing rare access to reconstructive plastic surgery; its director is the only plastic surgeon in the country. In FY2007, Interplast has the opportunity to: establish a surgical outreach center in Ghana; send a volunteer surgical team to Bamako, Mali; and provide visiting educator workshops in Ethiopia and Ghana.

India:

Kids Smile, Kerala India
Originally uploaded by Jennifer Esperanza.

Interplast also is planning on working in India, one of the world’s most populous and poverty-stricken region; 40 percent of the world’s poor live in India. Dr. Bill Schneider, Interplast’s chief medical officer, will head to India on May 23 to evaluate six sites that are under serious consideration for establishing direct service (free plastic surgeries), education and year-round surgical outreach programs. Schneider will visit: Jalandhar, Punjab; Debra Dun, Uttranchal; Chennai, Tamil Nadu; Bangalore, Karnataka; Trivandrum, Kerula; and Parbatia and Tinsukia, Assum.

To follow along on his site visits, please visit this blog at the end of May.