CLEFT Signs MoU to Launch Ground-breaking Fellowship

CLEFT is committed to creating sustainable solutions for cleft care worldwide, and our latest partnership with Kirtipur Hospital in Kathmandu marks an important milestone. We are thrilled to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to launch the CLEFT - Bridging the Gap Fellowship, an initiative designed to train and support the next generation of cleft surgeons in Nepal.

About the Fellowship

The CLEFT - Bridging the Gap Fellowship is a one-year training programme designed for a qualified and board-certified maxillofacial surgeon who is committed to a long-term career in cleft and craniofacial surgery. This fellowship, which costs £5,000 per year, is generously part-funded by Lord and Lady Stevens. The fellow will train under the supervision of experienced consultants at Kirtipur Hospital, playing an active role in patient care while refining their surgical skills.

Upon successful completion of the programme, the fellow will be registered with the Nepal Medical Council as a cleft surgeon and will join the cleft and craniofacial team at Kirtipur Hospital. The aim is for them to continue providing cleft surgeries, particularly in five outreach centres across Nepal, ensuring that children in remote areas receive the care they need.

Welcoming Our First Fellow

We are delighted to introduce Bipulesh, the first recipient of the CLEFT - Bridging the Gap Fellowship. In a special ceremony, David Sainsbury, cleft surgeon, presented Bipulesh with a traditional yellow Khata scarf, a gesture symbolising respect and gratitude. This marks the beginning of his journey towards becoming a dedicated cleft surgeon, making a lasting impact on cleft care in Nepal.

A Commitment to Lasting Change

The signing of this MoU represents CLEFT’s ongoing commitment to sustainable and locally-led cleft care. By investing in specialist training, we aim to build self-sufficient, skilled teams who can provide long-term support for children born with cleft conditions.

We are incredibly proud to support this new and exciting initiative and look forward to seeing the impact it will have on cleft care in Nepal.

Support Projects Like This

If you would like to contribute to life-changing initiatives like the CLEFT - Bridging the Gap Fellowship, donate today and help us train the next generation of cleft surgeons.

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We will always store your personal details securely. We'll use them to provide the service that you have requested, and communicate with you in the way(s) that you have agreed to. Your data may also be used for analysis purposes, to help us provide the best service possible. For full details see our Privacy Policy or contact us on 01245 421901.

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Privacy Policy
At CLEFT, we’re committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who contact us, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.
We may change this Policy from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes. By using our website, you’re agreeing to be bound by this Policy.

Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to [email protected] or by writing to CLEFT, 10a Warren Estate, Lordship Road, Writtle, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 3WT. Alternatively, you can telephone 01245 421901.

Who are we?
We are CLEFT, we support cleft lip and palate teams in poorer countries by working with local surgeons and other specialists to help them develop high quality multidisciplinary cleft centres. We do this by visiting and working with them regularly, helping to provide education and training and donating much needed equipment. Our goal is to help local teams so that children born with clefts in these countries will have the same opportunities as those in the UK.

CLEFT also supports research in the UK which will potentially benefit the much greater number of cleft lip and palate patients in countries other than the UK. Our research projects include a pilot project to develop techniques for 3-D MRI scanning of the palate, a study of the muscles of the soft palate to try to improve the quality of the surgery as well as investigating submucous cleft palate development and therapy.

CLEFT is a registered charity (no. 1119630). The registered address is CLEFT, 10a Warren Estate, Lordship Road, Writtle, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 3WT.

How do we collect information from you?
We may obtain information about you when you contact us about what CLEFT does, register for one of our events, to make a donation or if you register to receive one of our newsletters.

What type of information is collected from you?
The personal information we collect might include your name, address, email address, phone number, and birth date. If you make a donation online or by phone, your card information is not held by us, it is collected by our third party payment processors, who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions, as explained below.

How is your information used?
We may use your information to:
• process a donation that you have made;
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• process a grant or job application.

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations (for example the collection of Gift Aid). We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

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We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.
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Third Party Service Providers working on our behalf: We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to process donations and send you mailings). However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes. Please be reassured that we will not release your information to third parties beyond the CLEFT Network for them to use for their own direct marketing purposes, unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

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You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. If you do not want to receive direct marketing communications from us about the vital work we do in other countries and our research here in the UK then you can select your choices by ticking the relevant boxes situated on the form on which we collect your information.

We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email, phone or text message unless you have given your prior consent. We will not contact you for marketing purposes by post if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted. You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us by email: [email protected] or telephone on 01245 421901.

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The accuracy of your information is important to us. We’re working on ways to make it easier for you to review and correct the information that we hold about you. In the meantime, if you change email address, or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us at: [email protected], or write to us at: CLEFT, 10a Warren Estate, Lordship Road, Writtle, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 3WT. Alternatively, you can telephone 01245 421901.
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