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How we help: Khahn's story

Our patient Khahn lives in an orphanage, 110 km from Hanoi. His parents are not known to the staff at the orphanage. The fact that Khahn was born with a large cleft lip could unfortunately be one of the reasons why he was abandoned by his biological parents, who often do not know that treatment of clefts is available for free from our Vietnamese partners. Now Khahn's foster mother Hien lovingly takes care of the little one. She is very worried: would Khahn ever have an operation or, in the worst case, would he have to suffer from the cleft for his entire life, with the problems with simple everyday things like eating and speaking that means?

When Khahn is 16 months old, he fortunately receives an unexpected visitor. A man from the neighborhood has heard about the cleft child in the orphanage. This man was himself born with a cleft lip and palate and establishes contact with one of our three Vietnamese partner organizations, OSCA in Hanoi. Foster mother Hien immediately makes an appointment with our surgeon Dr. Ai. Dr. Ai heads one of our two projects in Hanoi, and orphans are often among his patients. Unfortunately it still happens that the children are abandoned by their parents because of their cleft. Khahn was lucky: Dr. Ai was able to give him surgery and closed his cleft lip. With a qualified surgery at this young age, Khahn has the best odds to have very good results from his treatment.

Now the next step is to close his cleft palate. We are grateful that we can give children like Khahn free treatment and thereby help them live normal lives. You can help cleft children in Vietnam now, with your donation: click here!



How we help: Dat's story

It was a shock to Dat's parents when their son was born with a cleft lip and palate. Luckily, Dat's mother quickly regained her courage and was confident that she would find help for Dat. She reached out to Cleft Vietnam partner OSCA (Center for Researching and Aiding Smile Operation), and, at only seven months old, Dat's cleft lip and jaw was surgically corrected.

OSCA's experienced surgeon Dr. Ai performed the second operation, the closure of the cleft palate, in March 2019. Dr. Ai operates in Hanoi and also travels to remote areas with his team to offer help for the cleft children there. A strength of OSCA is the good networking of employees and supporters throughout the country, ensuring that the children receive good aftercare. In Dat, a fistula (a small residual hole in the palate) was noticed after the surgery and repaired.

Dat was very fortunate: at the age of two, his cleft lip and cleft palate had been repaired, giving him the best chance to live a normal life. An early treatment of the cleft palate is important, since without treatment the child may not be able to learn to speak properly.

We wish lively little Dat a happy and carefree life! Please donate, so that we can help many more children like Dat!