Interplast partners with other nonprofits, foundations and corporations to help provide life-transforming care. We are grateful for these partnerships.

Interplast’s community is helping those living in poverty have free access to the safest and highest-quality care. Photo by John Urban.

Nonprofit Organizations

Acid Survivors Foundation: In Bangladesh and other countries in South Asia, one particularly vicious and damaging form of violence is acid throwing. Acid attacks have traumatic consequences— physically, psychologically and socially. Acid burn victims face social isolation damaging to self-esteem and economic position. The Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) was established in 1999 to coordinate efforts tackling this problem. It aims to provide ongoing assistance in the treatment, rehabilitation and reintegration into society of survivors of acid violence by identifying and improving existing services, and to work to prevent further acid-throwing attacks. Dr. Shafquat Khundkar, director of Interplast’s Surgical Outreach Center in Bangladesh, serves as medical advisor for ASF.

APROQUEN (Asociación Pro Niños Quemados de Nicaragua): This nonprofit in Nicaragua provides funding for free burn care for children. The organization supports the burn unit at the Hospital Metropolitano Vivian Pellas in Managua. Interplast has partnered with APROQUEN since its founding in 1990 to provide free reconstructive plastic surgery for children at the Ingenio San Antonio, the burn center and the Interplast Surgical Outreach Center. The medical director of this Interplast Outreach Center is Dr. Mario Perez.

Armonizar: Interplast partners with Armonizar, a Peruvian nongovernmental organization (NGO) committed to the rehabilitation of children born with cleft defects. Their work includes counseling, nutrition, and speech and physical therapy. Through the Interplast Surgical Outreach Center in Lima, Interplast provides free surgeries for Armonizar patients, and Armonizar provides follow-up therapies for Interplast patients, ensuring comprehensive cleft care in this area of the world, even for the most impoverished patients.

China Population Welfare Foundation: Interplast returned to China in 2005 at the invitation of the China Population Welfare Foundation, a nongovernmental organization working on social welfare issues in the People's Republic of China.

FlySpec (Flying Specialists): This nonprofit was founded in 1982 by Dr. John Jellis, an orthopedic surgeon in Zambia. In 1994, he was joined by Dr. Goran Jovic, the Interplast outreach director in Zambia. The surgeons use Jellis’s small plane to reach even the remotest areas of Zambia in order to provide free reconstructive orthopedic and plastic surgery to those in most need.

InterAction: Interplast is a proud member of InterAction, the largest coalition of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations focused on the world’s poor and most vulnerable people. Collectively, InterAction’s more than 165 members work in every developing country. Members meet people halfway in expanding opportunities and supporting gender equality in education, health care, agriculture, small business and other areas. The U.S. public shows its support for this work through contributions to InterAction members totaling more than $7 billion annually.

PHECT-Nepal (Public Health Concern Trust-Nepal): This Nepalese nonprofit is committed to achieving better health for the people of the Nepal, particularly the poor in outlying, rural areas, through the provision of quality patient care. Interplast’s Surgical Outreach Center in Nepal partners with PHECT to help the underserved children and adults who need reconstructive surgery for clefts, disabling burns and hand injuries. Dr. Shankar Man Rai directs Interplast’s Outreach Center in Nepal.

Rostros Felices (Happy Faces): Founded by Interplast partner Dr. Jorge Palacios in 1990, this organization provides reconstructive plastic surgery at no cost to poor children in remote areas of Ecuador. Interplast has collaborated with Rostros Felices since its inception. Dr. Palacios also is the director of Interplast’s Surgical Outreach Center in Ecuador.

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Foundations & Corporations

Barco's Nightingales Foundation:  Barco’s Nightingales Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Barco’s Uniforms, producer of medical and other uniforms.  Focused on helping children in need while highlighting the role that nurses play in providing medical care, Barco's Nightingales Foundation has helped provide more than 150 surgeries for children around the world. Last year, as Barco's Uniforms celebrated 80 years of business, they generously sponsored 80 surgeries to commemorate this milestone.

Johnson & Johnson: The Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies provides Interplast with thousands of dollars worth of medical supplies and equipment, which means that more of our precious financial resources can be dedicated to providing life-changing surgeries for children in need. They also have provided funding to help increase the surgical capacity in developing countries.

Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC): Since 1998, RMHC has granted more than $4 million to sponsor Interplast trips and training and support for local doctors to provide year-round care to impoverished children. Nearly 10,000 children have received life-changing surgery because of RMHC’s partnership with Interplast.

The Smile Train: This international foundation is dedicated to providing free, safe, high-quality surgery for the repair of cleft lip and palate deformities of children in developing countries. They provide funding for care in 71 different countries. The Smile Train often works through other organizations that actually manage the surgery providers. Interplast has been one of The Smile Train partners since their formation in 1999.

Syde Hurdus Charitable Foundation: Year after year, the Syde Hurdus Charitable Foundation helps support life-changing surgeries, speech therapy, medical education and empowerment programs, helping to create year-round access to medical care in developing countries. The New York-based Syde Hurdus Charitable Foundation was created from the estate of Ms. Syde Hurdus, a well-known clothing designer who cared deeply for the welfare of children around the world.

Other Long-term Partners: Interplast also would like to give special recognition to our long-term partners for their two decades of dedication and commitment to Interplast's mission, volunteers and outreach centers. Their ongoing support has helped Interplast grow its work and expand into new sites around the world. On our list of long-term partners, Interplast would especially like to acknowledge the following foundations: the Tosa Foundation, Grousbeck Family Foundation, The May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust and the T & T Family Foundation.

For a full listing of our donors and corporate partners, please download our Annual Report: Donors and Volunteers.

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