Heal children's lives with corrective surgery

We have been in Nepal since mid-May to meet with Dr. Rai, the Nepal Director of the Corrective Surgery Program, and to lead a fund-raising yoga tour in some of the most spectacular and historic sites in Nepal. We visited Dr. Rai at the recently opened surgery ward in the Plastic Surgery and Burn Center in Kirtipur, near Kathmandu, now open for patient care under CMAF's Corrective Surgery Program. Though the building itself is unfinished, it is wonderful to have the surgery ward open and functioning. It is clean and bright, with improved standards of care and universal precautions in place.

CMAF is pleased to have helped in the business planning and development of the Dietary Department in the new Plastic Surgery and Burn Center in Kirtipur.  The Center opened a 20-bed surgery ward and an Operating Suite in April 2013 as scheduled.  CMAF provided training for kitchen staff and donated kitchen utensils to help launch a public cafeteria as a social enterprise at the new Center, which will provide fresh-cooked food for staff, patients, visitors, and families.  All proceeds from the cafeteria operation will be used for corrective surgeries and follow-up care for burn patients.  We will continue to raise funds for the new Center, as it will facilitate corrective surgeries and burn treatments (including corrective surgeries for burn injuries), and training of medical staff who can work at the Center as well as outreach clinics in rural areas.

The new surgery ward was used recently in collaboration with volunteer doctors from Operation Smile to provide 65 children with cleft lip and/or palate surgeries - all in just 10 days! At this time some of the children sponsored by CMAF are being treated in the new Center and in the near future all Plastic Surgery patients will be cared for at the new Center.  

Among the children operated on in the new ward was Sumata, an 8-year-old Nepali girl from Kathmandu. Sumata had three conjoined fingers in one hand, and was very ashamed of her disfigurement. After her corrective surgery, which successfully separated the three fingers, she is very happy because she will now have a normal-looking hand with all fingers working.  With some hand therapy and exercise it will be possible for her to pick up and hold a pen without difficulty. She is no longer a deformed child suffering from stigma and shame. She can attend school without embarrassment and play with her friends. Her chance of finding a suitable husband has greatly increased and her future looks brighter. It is still hard to believe that this relatively simple surgery can make such a huge difference in a little girl's life.

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