After a forced break of 15 months due to Covid-19, our Peruvian partner organization Organizacion Qorito has finally been able to go on a mission outside of Lima again! The team usually regularly travels to remote regions to treat cleft children. However, due to COVID-19, this has not been possible. Now 16 patients were finally treated in Ayaviri, a small town in the Altiplano region northwest of Lake Titicaca, 1,400 km overland from Lima. Treating patients in these remote regions is difficult, but vital work since the medical infrastructure in the rural regions is more limited.
On April 10, 2021, Cleft Peru partner organization QORITO celebrated its 15th anniversary. Watch their anniversary video with impressions from their work and the celebration on Facebook (in Spanish). The team of Cleft Peru cofounder Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe e.V. thanks the QORITO team for their amazing work and wishes QORITO all the best for the next 15 years, and hopefully many more, of cooperation for the cleft children of Peru!
From January 29 to February 1, Qorito embarked on their first mission of this year to Azangaro / Puno. The mission was hosted by the Carlos Cornejo Rosella Vizcardo de Azangaro hospital, at 3850m above sea level! The mission began with a typical regional meal, the so-called Fiambre, which all Qorito team members enjoyed together with the hospital managers, the patients and their families. Many of the patients came from far away for both surgery and regular check-ups. Qorito operated on 32 children during the mission, giving them a chance to live a healthy life. For Dr. Alberto Bardales, this was a very special mission, because Azangaro is his home town. Organizacion Qorito and the Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe e.V. were honored for their efforts by the mayor of the city as well as by the Puno state government.
In early December 2019, Qorito held a one-day workshop for cleft patients and their parents at Casa Qorito, Qorito's headquarters and treatment center in Lima. 45 patients and their parents took part. The workshop took place in the garden of Casa Qorito. The main goal was to network the parents with each other. There were also playful exercises to improve the children's self-confidence and show them that they are not alone in having cleft. Of course there was also time for fun, singing, and little Christmas presents.
We wish the Qorito team, the patients and their families happy holidays!
From 11th until 13th of April 2019 the dental lab congress Megatec took place in Lima, Peru. It was a very interesting congress and a big success to show the collaboration between Amann Girrbach, a full-service-provider of digital dental prosthetics, and DCKH.
Thanks to the very generous participants of the congress and an auction of demonstration teeth donated by Oriol de La Mata, we were able to raise 1.000 USD for the patients with cleft lip and palate in Peru. A big thanks to Amann Girrbach and Dentalab HR Import, their representative in Peru.
Cleft Peru thanks Karl Storz SE & Co.KG, Tuttlingen for their generous donation of dental instruments to DCKH to support the work of the Cleft Peru partner organization QORITO. The QORITO odontologist and orthodontist were very happy to receive this generous donation, which will be put to use in their treatment of Peruvian cleft patients.
