Rotary clubs changing lives with Interplast

PICTURED: Matalomani in Tonga after her cleft lip surgery.

Rotary clubs across Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific are transforming lives through their enduring partnership with Interplast, funding surgeries and training that restore health, dignity and opportunity for thousands in developing nations.

During 2025 and 2026, dozens of clubs across the whole of Rotary South Pacific enabled the provision of life-changing treatment in developing nations, continuing the proud tradition of Rotary support for Interplast, which began when Interplast was co-founded by Rotary in 1983.

From Canning River in Western Australia to Auckland Harbourside in New Zealand, from Morphett Vale in the suburbs of Adelaide to Mt Eliza on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, from Bentleigh Moorabbin Central in Melbourne to Te Awamutu in the North Island of New Zealand, Rotary clubs have provided funding for a wide variety of Interplast programs. All of these programs have one thing in common. They change the lives of hundreds of current and future patients.

Thank you!

The generosity of all of these Rotary clubs in supporting Interplast has made not only life-changing surgeries possible, but has also provided ongoing and sustainable training for our partner clinicians in the 16 countries where Interplast currently works across the Pacific and South-East Asia.

Throughout 2025 and 2026, Rotary clubs made all of these Interplast programs possible:

• Week-long nurse education workshops in Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga and Kiribati, which include topics such as wound assessment and care, burns management, diabetic foot care and post-operative nursing.
• Surgical and training programs in Bhutan and Tonga, focussing on cleft repairs and burns reconstruction.
• Online training for Allied Health clinicians in managing burns, conditions affecting the hands, and cleft lip and palate.

The far-sighted Rotarians and surgeons who started Interplast in 1983 could not have known how many thousands of lives their wonderful idea would have a positive impact on.

For residents in developing nations – some only a few hours away by plane from Australia or New Zealand – without access to the hospital care we all take for granted, Interplast has enabled more than 23,000 surgeries.

Many Interplast patients are babies and toddlers with cleft lips and/or palates. Cleft repair surgery is vital for the wellbeing of the baby, who otherwise is at risk of malnutrition and pneumonia, as well as ostracisation and bullying due to their appearance.

When a child or adult is burnt in an accident, in developing nations there is often no ready access to a well-resourced emergency department or ongoing specialist care as we would experience it. And when burns can’t be treated appropriately, the patient often ends up with an acquired disability that has a profound impact on their quality of life.

Rotary clubs have helped patients like Ngawang in Bhutan, who was severely burnt on her arms, hands and chest, and Matalomani in Tonga, who had a cleft lip, return to lives free of pain, disability and stigma. However, children like Risati are still waiting for surgery.

The three-year-old, who lives in Samoa, was born with syndactyly as well as a cleft lip and a cleft palate. He has had two cleft surgeries and needs two further surgeries on his hands.

When a child is born with a congenital defect such as syndactyly (fingers joined together) or polydactyly (extra fingers or toes), their opportunity to grow up with fully functional hands and feet and without being teased or ostracised is greatly reduced in developing nations – all for want of an hour or two of surgery.

As Rotary clubs approach the end of the Rotary year, your club can help. Just $1,500 from your club can provide surgery for Risati and other kids like him.