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Humanitarian Program
ISAPS promotes reconstructive surgery missions all around the world.
Involved in Humanitarian Initiatives?
Whether you're a member of ISAPS contributing to ongoing missions or part of an organization seeking assistance from plastic surgeons, share your endeavors with us, and we'll assist in spreading awareness to ISAPS Members globally!
We would like to hear about your humanitarian work in plastic surgery. Tell us more
Humanitarian Programs:
AICPE Onlus Program
The AICPE Onlus program was created with the aim of carrying out charitable and solidarity activities in favor of disadvantaged people due to unfavorable psycho-physical or economic-social conditions, with particular attention to developing countries. Furthermore, as per the statute, the non-profit organization will also be able to promote and implement technical, scientific, cultural and professional training programs both in Italy and abroad.
Contact: Dr. Yury Macrino – dr.yurimacrino@gmail.com
Frequency: not specified (contact organization for specific dates)
Location: Togo, Paraguay, Guatemala, Benin
Specific surgical need: malformation repair, flaps, skin grafts, wound debridement
Number of surgeons needed: 2+ board-certified surgeons
Gaza Plastic Surgery
Gaza Plastic Surgery Curriculum Development and Board Certification Program:
Connected to the MAPS and IDEALS Program, this project aims to help Palenstine set up their own Board Certification program, starting with up-skilling existing ortho and general surgeons. They only have one surgeon who is ‘Board Certified’ in Plastic Surgery, so they don’t have enough trainers to produce more surgeons. This includes extra visits for plastics training, every two months, for one week at a time, of intensive training.
Contacts: Dr. Naveen Cavale – naveen.cavale@nhs.net
Lauren Poskitt – info@realplasticsurgery.co.uk
Interplast Switzerland
Interplast Switzerland is an organization carrying out reconstructive surgery in war and underdeveloped countries focusing on the whole spectrum of postburn, NOMA, Breast Reconstruction and hand surgery with a team of nurses, anaesthesiologist and students.
Contact: Dr. Volker Wedler - info@wedler.ch
Frequency: 4 to 5 missions per year, dates not specified (contact organization for specific dates)
Specific surgical need: Postburn, NOMA, Breast Reconstruction, Hand surgery
Number of surgeons needed: 2+ board-certified surgeons
Resource required: 1 OR with respirator
MAPS / IDEALS Program
This program combines two charities who work together MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians) and IDEALS (International Disaster & Emergency Aid with Long-term Support)
Contact: Naveen Cavale – naveen.cavale@nhs.net
Frequency: all year (contact organization for specific dates)
Location: Palestine, Lebanon
Specific surgical need: limb reconstruction, post conflict trauma, gunshot wounds
Number of surgeons needed: 6 per mission
MedGlobal
MedGlobal is a nonprofit organization that provides free, sustainable healthcare services to refugees, the displaced, and the most vulnerable in crisis areas and low-resourced countries worldwide. We send medical professionals to provide training and clinical care and we require a 1-week minimum time commitment.
Contact: Becca Sheehy – volunteer@medglobal.org
Frequency: all year (contact organization for specific dates)
Location: Gaza, Syria, Iraq
Specific surgical need: none specified
Number of surgeons needed: 2–5 per mission
Mision Caritas Felices, Peru
Misión Caritas Felices is a non-profit association founded and made up of Peruvian volunteers from various specialties. We focus on helping low-income people born with cleft lip and/or palate. This is achieved through free reconstructive surgeries nationwide and complementary treatments in various areas involved to achieve the total rehabilitation of the patient.
Contact: Lissel Kruger – mcf@misioncaritasfelices.org
Frequency: 5 missions per year (contact organization for specific dates)
Location: Lima, Perú
Specific surgical need: cleft lip/palate
Number of surgeons needed: not specified
Mumtaz Surgical Center
Afzaal Bashir conducts medical and surgical camps inside prisons in the Punjab. Over the last 15 years, more than 5,000 prisoners have benefitted from this care.
Contact: Sunaina Afzaal - sunaina.a.bajwa@gmail.com
Frequency: Twice a month
Location: Prisons all over the Punjab, Pakistan
Specific surgical need: wounds, hernias, varicose veins, sebaceous cysts, lipomata, and burns
Number of surgeons needed: 2 surgeons
Resources required: Human resources, medicines, sutures, and operating instruments
Nuevo Amanecer Program
The “Nuevo Amanecer” (“New Dawn”) program is an altruistic medical program that began 35 years ago, where children with Cleft Lip and Palate are treated. It is focused on low-income children in Guanajuato. The children born with a cleft lip or palate, if not supported by programs like “Nuevo Amanecer”, would be condemned to a life of margination. Until a few years ago, those who suffered from cleft lip and palate were stigmatized and ostracized.
Contact: Dr. Abel De la Peña – docabel@icloud.com
Frequency: twice a year (contact organization for specific dates)
Location and dates: Guanajuato, Mexico
Specific surgical need: cleft lip/palate
Number of surgeons needed: 5 board-certified plastic surgeons; 8 plastic surgery residents
Omada Aigaiou, Aegean Team
Omada Aigaiou is an organization that support and provides relief to the inhabitants of the small remote islands of Greece. The Aegean Team supports by providing medical examinations on site with more than 20 medical specialities including plastic surgery in on-site government medical units of the islands. The Aegean Team of Omada Aigaiou provides plastic surgery and other medical specialities which are otherwise unavailable in the small Greek islands.
Contact: Paraskevas Kontoes – vakiskont@gmail.com
Frequency: Although all year involvement with patients from the remote islands, 1 main mission in May and a 4-day mission in Autumn every year.
Location: Remote Greek islands
Specific surgical need: Plastic surgery and other medical specialties and activities which are not available in the small islands. Plastic surgery for prevention of skin cancer, operations for excision of skin cancer, local flaps, grafts and biopsies, excision of moles, cysts, and other skin lesions.
Number of surgeons needed: 4
Operation Restore Hope
Operation Restore Hope is a program for the repair of cleft and craniofacial deformities in Manila, the Philippines since 1993.
Contact: Katherine Hodgkinson – katherine@drhodgkinson.com.au
Frequency: There are 2 missions. First is active all year round, supporting local surgeons in 2 hospitals. The second is annual for 7-10 days only (contact organization for specific dates)
Location: Philippines
Specific surgical need: cleft lip/palate
Number of surgeons needed: 2-6 per mission
Operation Smile, International
Operation Smile creates solutions that deliver safe surgery to people where it's needed most. What started as a family-led, medical-mission based organization has grown into a global network of passionate individuals united under the belief that access to safe surgery is not a privilege, but a universal human right.
Contact: Sarah Yatsko here
Frequency: all year (contact organization for specific dates)
Location worldwide
Specific surgical needs: various
Number of surgeons needed: as many as possible
Palestine Children’s Relief Fund
For thirty years, PCRF has been on the ground in the Middle East, providing free medical care and urgent humanitarian aid for children in need, regardless of religion or race.
Contact: Suhail Flaifl – suhail@pcrf.net
Frequency: all year (contact organization for specific dates)
Location: Palestine
Specific surgical need: none specified
Number of surgeons needed: as many as possible
Smile Network International
Smile Network International is a non-profit organization that provides life-altering, reconstructive cleft surgeries and related healthcare services at no charge to under-resourced children and adults across the globe. Since 2003, Smile Network has performed thousands of surgeries in 13 countries on five continents.
Contact: Maureen Cahill – maureen@smilenetwork.org
Frequency: 8–10 missions per year
Location: Haiti, Guatemala, India
Specific surgical need: cleft lip/palate
Number of surgeons needed: 2 surgeons per mission, up to 16 surgeons per year
Triana Legacy Foundation
The Triana Legacy Foundation promotes health and provides illness prevention information for teenagers aged 11 to 18 years old. Previous education campaigns included education on sexually transmitted diseases. While current awareness campaigns are on vaping both for regulatory entities and for teenagers. Currently, there are no regulations in Colombia against in adults or children. Vaping is a public health problem for teenagers in Colombia.
So far, the Triana Legacy Foundation has consulted with health authorities to implement programs against children and teenagers vaping with the help of school councils and parents associations.
Contact Laura Barbosa - trianalegacyfoundation@gmail.com
Frequency: Daily and monthly talks at various private and public schools
Location: Cali, Colombia
Specific surgical need: Public Health education on vaping for teenagers
Viet Duc University Hospital of Hanoi
Support the department of CranioMaxilloFacial and Plastic Reconstructive Aesthetic Surgery at the Viet Duc University Hospital of Hanoi.
Contact: Dr. Nguyen Hong Ha – nhadr4@gmail.com
Frequency: all year (contact organization for specific dates)
Location: Vietnam
Specific surgical need: Craniofacial Maxillofacial, Maxillofacial Trauma, Vascular Malformations, Hand, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery
Number of surgeons needed: 2–10
2nd CHANCE, Switzerland
2nd CHANCE is a non-profit organization which aims at developing reconstructive surgery in regions which are economically underprivileged as well as in post-war contexts.
In countries where medical and material facilities are not readily available, such physical discrepancies impair the psychic and social quality of life of millions of people. Needs are tremendous. Local skills for the care of these patients are still far too limited.
2nd CHANCE needs candidate surgeons willing to teach African surgeons Reconstructive Surgery for 1 week workshops. The organization is also looking for long term candidates to work with them.
Contact: Zeidan Anne - anne.zeidan@2nd-chance.org
Frequency: 14 weeks per year (contact organization for specific dates)
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Specific surgical need: Cleft lip+I8, Cleft palate and Craniofacial anomalies
Success Stories
- Missions to Amman, Jordan helped local surgeons treat injured Syrian refugees:
- 18 trips, 263 surgeries, and 450 patient evaluations.
- Total International Disaster Relief Missions to Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon:
- 25 trips, 438 surgeries, 907 patient evaluations
We applaud all those ISAPS members who actively participated in this vital program. We are working to continuously update and revitalize our humanitarian mission efforts.
