Charplast was founded by Dr. Donald R. Laub in 1980. The purpose was to put together a non profit organization for family members to use as a vehicle to help the people of the world. Charaplast is a registered 501(c)3 non profit organization in the USA. Dr. Laub is also the founder of the organization Interplast. Interplast was found over 30 years ago to bring medical relief to children and young adults with cleft lip and cleft palette deformities. Over the years, Interplast has been to over 30 countries and performed tens of thousands of free surgeries on children of the world.
Around 1999, James Laub began to discover some educational and medical opportunities of need in Cambodia. After several trips and preliminary work, he paved the way for educational supplies and computers donated from the USA to be sent to the schools outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Following that came the successful partnership with Operation Smile which is
another organization of doctors and nurses who provide cleft lip and cleft palette surgeries throughout the world. James Laub provided the means and for Operation Smile to come to Cambodia in 2002 where they landed with a team of medical personnel and equipment and conducted over 160 cleft lip and cleft palette surgeries in one week. Since then, Operation Smile has been returning to Cambodia annually to do the same thing each year. Over 500 surgeries in Cambodia alone have now been performed changing the lives of these children forever.
In 2005, more opportunities were discovered by James Laub in Vietnam. After establishing a rapport with the hospitals in DaNang, Vietnam, Laub secured medical equipment donations from the USA (Swanson Family Foundation) and had a container of equipment delivered to the hospitals of Danang City. With the help of the non profit organization in Vietnam called Children of Vietnam, the equipment was safely received and delivered to the hospitals in need.
A relationship was cemented with the directors and doctors of DaNang General hospital and Danang Orthopedic hospital.
In 2007, Laub invited a Polish contingent of doctors to come to these 2 hospitals to provide training, new techniques and perform surgeries in the pediatrics ward of Danang General and with children and adults in DaNang Orthopedic hospital. The Polish team came with 7 pediatricians of various specialties alog with 3 orthopedic doctors and one orthopedic nurse. The goal was to give the Vietnamese doctors more advanced Western style medical techniques and procedures. In addition, the Polish team lectured to the hospital staff in each specialty area giving the doctors of Vietnam more hope and strategies to help the children and adults.
Mexico
