Help a Child Face Tomorrow, now on its 12th year since inception, is an indigenous all African non-profit, non-governmental organization whose work is to help children and adults in Kenya and Africa as a whole live better lives by repairing craniofacial malformations, including cleft lips and palates, severe burn contractures and other surgical conditions. The organization plans for surgical missions both locally in Kenya and internationally across Africa and Asia throughout the year. In collaboration with various hospitals, the organization is able to set camp in these towns and/or countries to do what the team does best; change lives. The organization works with many institutions in both rural and urban Kenya. Internationally, the team travels yearly to many countries that have included Bangladesh, Rwanda, Somaliland, Puntland Somalia, DR Congo, Cameroon, Uganda and Zambia where they have been able to impact on the national and regional communities.
With a pool of over 60 volunteers including surgeons, medical officers, nurses, anesthesiologists, bio medical engineers and photographers, the organization has been able to oversee more than 10,000 surgeries of patients who would have otherwise not received help. These volunteers, from different backgrounds and institutions are able to get time from their busy schedules to give back to society, and change lives in their own simple ways, other skills.
The organizations mantra is that the patients safety is the most important priority and it is therefore crucial that these volunteers are qualified in the various designations and are very professional in what they do, and are up to date in their academic and professional knowledge and skills. The quality of care given to the patients is one they would get at any 1st world country or rightly put in the 21st century.
The organization not only prides itself in the many patients lives it has transformed, but also in training and empowering personnel in partner hospitals that it has collaborated with. It's in such missions that the organization's pool of volunteers grows, and at the same time, these willing individuals are trained be it in operating room and critical care nursing, anaesthesia and surgery. The organization then identifies partner hospitals where training workshops and seminars can be held for the various cadres.
Just as running any institution or organization, HCFT is not without its challenges. These range from financial to logistical challenges that call for critical thinking and proper handling. At the end of the day, the organizations goal of improving people's quality of life met, and that is what is at the core of the organization.