Mission Statement

For unknown reasons Vietnam and Laos have a high incidence of children born with a cleft lip, jaw and palate disorder. This is a most unfortunate disorder that prevents these people of normal speech; breathing and eating not to forget the facial deformity that often condemn them to be social outcasts. Except for this deformity 'schisis' patient are completely normal. Sufficient knowledge to operate these patients is missing in Vietnam and Laos.

As a guest of the Vietnamese Dental Association and the Academy of Dentistry International Dr. J.R.D.Backer met in 1994 with Prof. Lam Ngoc An, Director of the Maxillo-Facial Institute in Ho Chi Minh City. Half a year later Dr. Backer introduced the 'sharing of knowledge' idea to the KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) in the form of an entry in the KLM world wide competition and won a mayor price giving him the opportunity to visit Vietnam again with a small team of Dutch surgical specialists to start a working relationship with the Institute. This prize gave the group also the financial means to introduce a group of Vietnamese surgeons, young specialists, nursing staff and operation assistants to the Netherlands and establish a formal working relationship between the Medical Faculty of Ho Chi Minh City and the University of Amsterdam. The "Bridge the Gap" Foundation was born.

The instruction and training of Vietnamese surgeons in the operation technique of cleft palate operations is the first and most important goal of the Foundation. The Foundation also assists the Dental School in HCMC in the organization of a children department, a preventive care department and scientific outlines of monitor surveys. It is quit fashionable for surgical teams to go to a country and operate children and then leave: the so called "hit and run" schemes. The Foundation however aims at the introduction of a multi disciplinary care system for these patients (surgical operations, preventive dental care, restorative dental care, orthodontic treatment and speech training) like we have it in this part of the world and diligently works with our Vietnamese colleagues to succeed in this ideal. In the year 2000 the Foundation made a contract and protocol with the Dental School of HCMC to secure these treatments to children. The Foundation also assists in providing new and modern medical and dental equipment (also computers) to the hospital and the Dental school. As such we have now just opened our 'own' up to date surgical operation room in the Maxillo- Facial hospital in Saigon so that also our Vietnamese colleagues can perform the most difficult surgical procedures with the best possible equipment.

To instruct our Vietnamese colleagues we need patients and there are plenty of them in Vietnam and Laos. Since the Institute has to charge patients a minimum fee of US$ 100. - to cover for operation costs, medicines, etc. and many patients (parents) can not afford these costs for their child the Foundation expressed the wish to cover these costs themselves to give a fair chance to the 'poorest of the poor'. The cooperation with the Institute in HCMC and the Dental School is excellent and very professional. Thanks to its, now Immediate-past, director, our highly esteemed friend Prof. Lam Ngoc An, and the Director Dr. Huynh Con Dam, we developed also a plan to work outside HCMC to reach out to those children that are always at the end of the line. During our training sessions in Vietnam we visit far away provinces (taking with us surgeons, assistants and all the medical equipment that we may need) to operate those children that can not possibly come to HCMC. Over the last ten (10) years we operated more than 1500 patients and trained some 9 young very well qualified Vietnamese surgeons in this technique. We still have some 2000 patients to go. The Dutch team consists of 3 plastic surgeons, 4 maxillo-facial surgeons, one anesthetist and 2 dentists and they spend every year (during their vacation) two weeks of training in Vietnam.

In 2001 the Foundation shipped dental units and X-ray machines and equipment to Vietnam (with help of K-Line shipping company) to help the province of Quang Nam with their school dental services. We worked in the year 2000 some days in that province. This is not really a first priority of the Foundation but the group was very moved by their situation after the last floods in 1999 and the loss of equipment and would like to help these people building up their school dental services for children. The Foundation receives great help from the Netherlands Embassy in Hanoi, the Netherlands Consulate in HCMC and the Vietnamese Embassy in The Hague. In 2003 operations where performed in Saigon and Chau Doc. (187) and is also the start of the Dental School program for surgical operated children (56). The new surgery was finished in January 2004 and may serve not only our modest group of Dutch surgeons but more so the Vietnamese surgeons of the Institute to help their patients. In 2005 we worked also in My Tho and helped some 88 patients and overall 183 patients.

After ten years of work there are clear signs that, except for the most complicated cases, Vietnam has enough skills to solve its own problems and therefore we wanted to expand our much needed help to Laos and visited Vientiane, the capital. We hope to sign an agreement with the University hospital Mahosot, with the approval of the Lao Government to start working together in 2006.

The funding of this project is entirely done by the members of the group by means of lectures and fundraising projects supported by private foundations, service clubs, private donations and help of medical companies. The Foundation has a simple organization, a clear view of its aims and has no political, religious, racial or whatever motives. It is just professional fun, scientific exchange of knowledge and working together with our highly valued Vietnamese and/or Lao colleagues and it is as simple as that.

Dr. J.R.D. Backer
Secretary