Surgery for Guatemalans with Cleft Lip and Palate

The work Partner for Surgery conducts in Guatemala is the result of many people's contributions: donors like you, medical and non-medical volunteers, our local staff and Health Promoters, and the communities where we work. 

In 2018, more than 300 children born with a cleft lip/palate received nutritional and surgical care as part of Partner for Surgery's program. 

With your support, our Health Promoters visited rural communities in Guatemala and quickly identified children born with cleft lip/palate. They placed the children in our nutritional program and started to visit the family to provide support. They gave each mother a breast pump and a bottle designed specially for feeding babies with cleft lip/palate. Mothers also received general education on how to keep their baby healthy until they were ready for surgery. 

Partner for Surgery has the most comprehensive program for babies who are born with cleft lip/palate in the rural communities of Guatemala. Through our immediate attention to nutrition, we are able to ensure the babies can successfully endure surgery as soon as possible. 

While the babies wait for surgery over the first few months of their lives, our Health Promoters will visit their families regularly and monitor the baby's development. Once they have had surgery, we continue to visit them to make sure they are recovering from surgery well.

327 children had cleft lip/palate surgery in 2018 as part of our program. 

Last October, Frank Peterson, founder of Partner for Surgery, and I, visited some of the families of babies who had been in our program. The moms were so happy to show us how well their babies were doing. They walked a long way carrying the children in their arms to let us see them up close. It was a very touching moment for us and a huge boost to our motivation to continue this work.

Thank you for your help! We could not have done it without you.