Take Action: Surgery Organizations (Developing World)

Charities may send developed-world surgeons overseas to provide treatment directly or may train/fund surgeons in the developing world. The conditions they work on include:

• Repairing cataracts, which can impair vision.
• Repairing obstetric fistulas, which can be severely debilitating to young women.
• Repairing cleft lip/palate conditions (a split in the lip or the roof of the mouth), which can cause speech and eating problems.

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Source: GiveWell

Donors should ask the following questions about surgery-focused charities:

• What is the bottleneck to more surgeries: money or skilled labor? In many cases, funding may not be the bottleneck to more surgeries—surgeons are.
• How is quality assured? Charities that fly developed-world surgeons overseas may be putting them in highly unfamiliar environments with unusually difficult conditions. Charities that support developing-world surgeons are relying on people whose medical education may be very different from what is standard in the developed world.
• Many surgeries require followup care. Is it provided? When is one surgery enough?

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Source: GiveWell