A Story Of Healing December 11, 2008

Human Rights, in Celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the UN and the Declaration of Human Rights — dedicated to doctors who do humanitarian missions.

Directed by Donna Dewey (28 minutes) -- Interplast is the first international humanitarian organization to provide free reconstructive surgery in developing countries, primarily to children with cleft lip and palate and burn scar contractures. Interplast was founded in 1969 by plastic surgeon Donald Laub and, as of 2007, has treated more than 64,000 children worldwide. The first patient was a 13-year-old boy who had come to Stanford University Medical Center from his home in Mexicali, Mexico to receive surgery to repair his cleft lip and palate. Soon after, Laub and other surgeons began organizing regular trips to a charity hospital in Mexicali to treat children with disabling deformities. Over time, Interplast began organizing surgical volunteer trips to other parts of Latin America, and eventually to Asia and Africa as well. As medical infrastructures improved throughout the developing world, Interplast shifted its focus towards educating and empowering doctors in developing countries by providing surgical outreach directors with the resources (money, education, supplies, etc) to offer high-quality care in their own communities. In 2007, A Story of Healing became the first Academy Award-winning film to be released under a Creative Commons license.