Following the motto “Helping people help themselves”, we work to build independent structures in our project countries. The medical effort on site is organized independently by our local partners. In our 12 project countries, more than 250 local doctors, therapists and project coordinators provide on-site medical care and ongoing support for patients.
In major cities we have fixed project locations in partner clinics. In order to care for the many patients who live in remote rural regions, regular missions are carried out to provincial hospitals. Each project has a senior surgeon with a team of anesthesiologists and nurses at their side. Trained staff travel the country holding awareness campaigns. The main goal here is to educate the affected parents about the causes of the malformation and the availability of free treatment. As the aid structures in a country expand, the local core teams may also grow to include speech therapists, orthodontists, dentists and psychologists.
Some of our aid projects are supported on a voluntary basis by German doctors with their specialist expertise. They usually visit the project country they are overseeing once a year. In addition to project evaluation, these visits are also used to further educate local partners. We also promote interdisciplinary exchange between our international project partners, to share the latest knowledge. All of these measures have one goal: to ensure high quality treatment worldwide.