Help for cleft children in Pakistan

Exemplary progress

Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe has been active in Pakistan since 2013. In 2024, our two Pakistani teams performed 1,400 surgeries. By number of surgeries, Pakistan is—after India and Bangladesh—one of our largest project countries. At our permanent site in Karachi, children receive comprehensive, multidisciplinary care beyond surgery. An exemplary development.

2013 to 2016: Years of building

2016: Prof. Muhammad Ashraf Ganatra takes over leadership of our first project site in Karachi, the capital of Sindh Province.

2020 to 2023: Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) supports the establishment of an interdisciplinary cleft center in Karachi. The overarching goal is the social integration of the children treated by our team.

Since 2023: At our cleft center in Karachi, Prof. Ganatra provides, under one roof and in addition to surgery, pediatrics, speech therapy, psychosocial support, ENT, dentistry, and orthodontics.

2024: Together with plastic surgeon Dr. Waseem Humyoun, we launch our second project in Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province.

Great need, especially in remote regions

The need for help in Pakistan is great. Each year, around 9,000 children are born with cleft lip and/or palate. Only about half receive surgery. While there are some plastic surgeons in Pakistan, few operate on cleft conditions; most lack the necessary expertise. Moreover, treating a child from a poor background is often not financially viable. As a result, these children often do not get a place in public hospitals, or their parents cannot afford the surgery. Even the travel costs to reach a hospital can be prohibitive. This is true for families in major cities like Karachi and even more so for those living in remote areas where there are no cleft surgeons. To reach these children as well, our two teams regularly conduct surgical outreach missions outside their base locations in Karachi and Punjab.