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CLEFT CHARITY PROGRAM
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Background
Cleft cases in Indonesia have a very high incidence rate. Cleft lip and palate is predicted to happen at 1:800 – 1:1000 of live birth. The etiology of cleft cases itself is multifactorial. The incidence of cleft cases will increase in accordance with birth rate. Unfortunately, developing countries such as Indonesia generally have high birth rate, therefore the incidence rate of cleft cases is also high. The number of plastic surgeons in Indonesia is still relatively low (only 82 surgeons) compared to more than 220 million of population and they are not evenly spread around the country. The discrepancy between surgeons and cleft cases plays a role in the high number of untreated cleft cases.
History
The cleft charity program first started in 1997 and has been going on ever since. In a very good partnership Dharma Bakti Social Foundation (the Yayasan Dharmais) and IAPS (Indonesian Association of Plastic Surgeons – called PERAPI) founded this program on August 26th 1997. The purpose of this program is to help cleft lip and palate patients to overcome their low self-esteem and gain their full potential in life. The program intends to do as many operations as possible and in a relatively short time without any charge to the patients. The surgery is done in a province hospitals or district hospitals (RS kabupaten), in the operating theatre with crews consisting of plastic surgeons, senior residents in plastic surgery and anesthesiologists, as well as nurses.
During the past ten years this program has helped almost six thousands of unfortunate people with cleft lip palate in more than fifty remote places across Indonesia. We hope to continue helping them and bringing new smiles upon their faces as well as good quality of speech.
Pictures 2 and 3. Situation in the operating theatre
Picture 4. Medical team for cleft charity program in one of the program
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