Date: 01/24/2025 - 02/01/2025
Difficulty: ★ ★ ★ ★
Type of Provider: Physician, Nurse, Speech Language PathologistPartner: FACES Foundation
Medical Setting: Hospital
Accommodation: Hotel
Cultural Experience: Yes
Lambayeque, Peru
Partner: FACES Foundation
Date: January 24 – February 1, 2025
Program Cost: Volunteers pay for airfare and contribute $200 towards food and lodging for week.
Estimated Airfare Cost: $1500
Provider: Facial Plastic Surgeons, Pediatric Anesthesiologists, OR Nurses and Techs, Post-Anesthesia Recovery Nurses, and Speech Language Pathologists. Occasionally, we need photographers and Spanish-English interpreters.
Medical setting:
The campaign is hosted by a public Hospital, and the volunteers work alongside local staff and within the operating rooms of the hospital. This is a mostly outdoor hospital with pharmacy, laboratory, cardiac, gynecological, neonatal, emergency, surgical and social services.
Accommodations:
The team stays in a local hotel near the hospital. Given the size of our team, we generally fill the hotel. Breakfasts and lunches are provided to all volunteers.
Cultural experience:
There are one or two evenings of ceremony hosted by the community to honor the volunteers. Beyond that, team members are encouraged to travel after the end of the campaign.
Program Includes:
FACES coordinates the campaign logistics and provides medical liability insurance for all providers. Lodging and meals are supplied by FACES.
Airfare to and from Chiclayo, Peru is the responsibility of the team member. All volunteers should plan to arrive with FACES so the team can pass through customs together with the medical supplies. Any personal travel should be done after the campaign.
All team members will be asked to submit $200 to help cover hotel and food expenses.
About the country:
Peru is a country in South America. The main language spoken is Spanish, although there is a significant rural population that speaks Quechua. There is a considerable wealth distribution gap in Peru: on the one hand, there are first class accommodations and restaurants in Lima and in the more touristic south, and on the other hand, many Peruvians do not have reliable access to drinking water, electricity or healthcare services. The population served by the FACES Foundation come from rural, poor regions of the country.
About FACES Foundation
FACES stands for the Foundation for the Advancement of Cleft Education & Services. FACES has conducted surgical cleft campaigns in Northern Peru for 15 years. Our team of surgeons, nurses, and speech language pathologists provide comprehensive cleft care to impoverished Peruvians and provide education and training to the local medical community. Our goal is that every child dealing with the stigma of cleft lip and palate should be able to obtain surgery, no matter their financial situation or geographic barriers.
Children who are born with both a cleft lip and a cleft palate need multiple surgeries. The FACES Surgical Team follows patients throughout their medical journey. This is why we return to the same town year after year.
Prior to a surgical campaign, all patients are evaluated by a US Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon. The FACES surgeons host preliminary virtual evaluations and refer good surgical candidates to local pediatricians for further evaluation and pre-surgical work-up. FACES has partnered with Hospital Belén of Lambayeque for the campaigns, and this hospital provides compassionate and competent medical professionals with specialties in pharmacy, nursing, laboratory, pediatrics, and social services.
To see trips dates and learn more visit: FACES Foundation