Ms. Katrin Kandel, CEO of Facing The World, will be awarded the 2024 National Volunteer Award for her efforts in examining and operating on children with facial deformities.
Ms. Katrin Kandel, General Director of Volunteering at Facing The World, is the only foreigner among the 10 individuals who will be awarded the National Volunteer Award 2024 by the Central Youth Union. The award ceremony will take place tomorrow evening, December 29, in Lao Cai.
Facing The World is a charity founded in 2002 in the UK to help children with facial deformities in developing countries and started operating in Vietnam in 2008, which was also the beginning of Ms. Katrin Kandel's "fate" with Vietnam.
Speaking to a reporter from the Vietnam News Agency, Ms. Katrin Kandel said that Facing The World initially chose to send Vietnamese children in need of complex maxillofacial surgery to the UK for treatment, at a cost of up to 0.5-1 million pounds per child.
But then the organization quickly adjusted its strategy to a long-term and sustainable direction by bringing foreign medical teams from many different specialties to Vietnam, collaborating with Vietnamese doctors to perform complex maxillofacial surgeries for children. Facing The World also organizes training programs, sending Vietnamese doctors to the world's leading medical institutions and schools to learn surgical techniques and methods of treating maxillofacial deformities. FTW's doctor training program began in 2015 at hospitals in the UK, Canada, the US, and Australia.
Over the past 16 years, Facing The World has provided craniofacial surgery to thousands of Vietnamese children. Facing The World has also assembled a network of volunteer surgeons and medical professionals committed to providing their expertise to those in need; donated £2.4 million ($3.12 million) in telemedicine equipment and technology to surgical centres in Vietnam; and funded the establishment of Vietnam’s first Maxillofacial and Aesthetic Surgery Centre in late 2018 at the 108 Military Hospital.
In 2024, Facing The World has had many activities in Vietnam such as organizing the International Conference on Diagnosis and Treatment of Rhinosinus and Head and Neck Diseases (WAAM) with Hong Ngoc General Hospital; chairing international consultations that have helped Vietnamese doctors access new techniques, improve their skills, and be more confident in handling complex cases. Vietnamese doctors also share knowledge about specific diseases of the region, helping international experts understand better, thereby having appropriate treatment plans.
Facing The World also organizes trips to bring many doctors from the UK, Germany and other developed countries to Vietnam, creating a strong bridge between Vietnamese and international medicine; supporting more than 100 doctors at Facing the World's partner hospitals in Vietnam to be sent for training for 2-6 weeks, with an average cost of about 11,000 pounds/2 weeks of training. Facing The World is also cooperating with three partner hospitals in Vietnam, including Hong Ngoc Private Hospital, 108 Military Hospital and Viet Duc Friendship Hospital.
A typical model and initiative of Facing The World is InTouch Health - a platform that helps Vietnamese doctors connect with experts at the world's leading surgical centers, who can advise and train Vietnamese doctors regularly without having to be present in Vietnam.
Through this platform, doctors at centers in major cities in Vietnam can connect with doctors and nurses at medical centers in remote areas to support children's medical examination and treatment and advise on treatment, such as deciding whether to transfer children to major centers for surgery or just need local treatment. With InTouch Health and 26 doctors trained under the Facing The World program, it is expected that after 8 years of operation, the Center will connect and treat 60% of children with congenital facial deformities in Vietnam.
Each year, Facing The World sends to Vietnam two delegations of doctors from hospitals that provide scholarships and train Vietnamese doctors to coordinate with Vietnamese colleagues to perform complex maxillofacial surgeries, and organize online professional conferences with surgeons across Vietnam.
In the coming time, Facing The World will continue to send foreign medical teams from many different specialties to Vietnam, coordinate with Vietnamese doctors to perform complex maxillofacial surgeries for children, and continue to promote support for Vietnam in applying technology in training and remote diagnosis. Facing The World will also sponsor 40,000 surgeries performed by Vietnamese doctors trained under this organization's program, and is expected to send at least 200 Vietnamese doctors abroad for training and continue to sponsor medical equipment for remote medical examination and treatment in the next 5 years.
With her efforts in examining and performing surgeries for children, Ms. Katrin Kandel has received many awards such as the LOANI VNUK Inspirational Global Leadership Award (2023), the Vietnam International Awards in the field of Innovation (2024), the Friendship Medal from the President of Vietnam, the Certificate of Merit for important contributions to socio-economic development in 2021 from the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations, the Points of Light Award in 2017 from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (2017)./.
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