ABOUT
Operation Cleft Australia
Operation Cleft Australia is an international humanitarian project of the Rotary Club of Box Hill Central, Victoria. Operation Cleft Australia’s mission is together with partner DCKH to provide more than 1,500 free, cleft repair surgeries each year to underprivileged children in Bangladesh – enabling them to live normal and meaningful lives and contribute to building their nation.
MISSION & HISTORY.
Operation Cleft is a unique Rotary project that offers free cleft repair surgery to underprivileged children in Bangladesh. Sadly, cleft repair surgery is not covered under the overburdened public health care system in Bangladesh. Consequently, thousands of children grow up with untreated cleft lip and/or palate, which ostracises them from society. They often suffer from ear, nose, and throat infections, depression, and malnutrition. By surgically repairing the cleft lip and/or palate of these children, we provide them with the opportunity to lead a normal life, obtain an education, build a social network, and reach their full potential as productive members of their community. The cost of each operation is just $AUD350. Operation Cleft also supports the development of speech and language therapy, a relatively new service in Bangladesh, mainly limited to Dhaka. Our focus is on making speech therapy more accessible and promoting it as a post-operative program to achieve optimal outcomes, especially in young children after cleft palate repair. Over the last three years, we have been working with community health workers, who offer basic advice to families on improving their child’s speech post-surgery. Ideally, we like to operate on children when they are young and have not yet developed the nasal speech patterns that require correction. However, children with cleft palates are prone to infection, making it impossible to operate on them when they are first present for surgery. Instead, we must wait until they are healthy enough to tolerate the anesthetic. We are proud of the work we have accomplished and the lives we have changed. Thank you for your continued support of Operation Cleft.
EVERY FACE TELLS A STORY.
PARTNERS.
Our work would not be possible without our incredible, worldwide partners.
Operation Cleft Australia is proud to collaborate with various partners who share our vision of providing life-changing cleft repair surgeries to underprivileged children in Bangladesh. Together with our partners, we work towards ensuring that these children have access to the medical care they need to live healthy, meaningful lives.
We have an office at The Glencoe Foundation Bangladesh from where the in-country administration of the project is co-ordinated.
DCKH is a German organisation dedicated to one mission: to help children who cannot help the fact that they were born with a cleft lip or palate.
Our collaboration with DCKH has made it possible to expand the project locations and services offered to help more people, by engaging more surgeons, performing more operations, and reducing administrative costs.
We have an office at The Glencoe Foundation Bangladesh from where the in-country administration of the project is co-ordinated.
The NGO Affairs Bureau is a part of the Prime Minister’s Office in Bangladesh, and is the Government body responsible for monitoring and auditing not for profit organisations operating in-country.
Operation Cleft is approved by the NGO Affairs Bureau.