Laos 2025

Cleft Repair was established in March of 2023. The team is made up of dedicated group of doctors and nurses who are passionate about treating children born with cleft lip/palate. In Laos, the team was met with a docket of patients who, although they were children, had waited a long while for their help.

“Many of our patients are older children, carrying the burden of cleft lips and palates that should have been repaired long ago. But here, in this remote corner of northern Laos, access to care is a distant dream,” Myhanh wrote. “Our presence here is rare, and we do not know when another team of this magnitude will return. So we push forward, working tirelessly to repair as much as we can in a single operation—both cleft lip and palate, when possible.”

Among these was a 9-year-old boy who was on the verge of quitting school because of the teasing and cruelty from other kids about his unrepaired cleft lip and palate. The young boy, who successfully had his lip and palate repaired, invited Team Cleft Repair to his remote village nearby during their mission, hoping to show the nurses and doctors who cared for him “the beauty of the place he calls home.” Another patient of Team Cleft Repair’s was a 12-year-old girl who similarly faced “years of taunts, whispers, and the silent weight of being seen as different.” Her successful surgery has offered a new chance at adolescence.

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