Our Mission
Janakpur is situated in the south east of Nepal, with catchment area of 5 million population of Nepal and similar population of North Bihar, India.
Our vision for the centre is to improve the lives of, and create equal opportunities for people who have been born with craniofacial abnormalities who cannot access the surgery they need.
There is no formal provision or designated centre for cleft and craniofacial anomalies in south east of Nepal. Some uncoordinated surgery is carried out by untrained private practitioners, and for a few fortunate people, there may be access to services in other countries. For most this surgery is not accessible, and they live with deformities affecting facial appearance, hearing, speech and psychosocial problems. This usually means not being able to participate in the normal activities of life. Often, schooling is not possible because the family do not wish to be further stigmatised or for their child to be traumatised by public appearance. It is important that a facility such as the Craniofacial Centre is established to reduce the burden of disease – a burden on the patient, their family and the state.
Since 2017, we have developed this service and recently have built a new hospital which will provide a top quality, modern surgical service and which will facilitate training for young surgeons, anaesthetists, speech therapists and community health workers.
Training will take place both locally and as part of a scholarship programme at established centres of excellence in India and Europe.
Our aim is to establish a first class fully comprehensive and accessible centre for the treatment of people with cleft and other craniofacial anomalies, facial trauma and head and neck cancer, and associated problems and training of the local medical and allied medical professionals. Treatment will mean the regeneration of the lives of people who have been treated, their employment status and their income contribution to their families and to the economy and community. The opportunity for children to go on to education and live normal lives will be greatly enhanced.
Since starting, we have seen
- the establishment of a hospital–based service providing full facilities for out-patient and in-patient treatment in a safe environment, with fully trained surgeons and anaesthetists and allied professionals
- a service free of charge to the majority of patients but in cases where they are willing and able to pay, for example, for some privacy, making payment which will be used to progressively reduce overall running and training
We have group of maxillofacial surgeons visiting on a regular basis. Other specialists are also involved, from speech therapy and audiology, ENT, Neurosurgery, Paediatrics and Orthodontics.
The Craniofacial Center is a non-profit and ultimately self-sustainable organisation.
We aim to provide best quality care for local communities by well trained local surgeons from Nepal. We will establish training fellowships for local surgeons and other allied professionals, offering the opportunity to acquire appropriate expertise and ultimately become entirely independent.