Care and surgery

La Chaîne de l'Espoir promotes access to healthcare and operates on behalf of underprivileged populations, particularly children, from the most disadvantaged areas of the world.

Background

A child
under 5

dies every 6 seconds
worldwide

The majority of
child deaths

of under-5s is due to preventable or treatable causes.

830 women die

every day worldwide as a result of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.

Sources : WHO, Unicef

Our action to care for and operate on impoverished populations

A fight for life

Lacking access to medical care, millions of children and women are condemned to death every year. The vast majority of these deaths occur in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia, where we concentrate our efforts. Due to a lack of human and material resources, pathologies that can be treated in France often prove fatal in many countries. That’s why, for over 25 years, we have been developing access to healthcare for the most vulnerable populations, and operating on the most vulnerable populations, especially children.

“All together, we can give the most vulnerable a chance to simply live.”

Pr Alain Deloche, Founder of La Chaîne de l’Espoir

Saving children through surgery: our raison d’être

La Chaîne de l’Espoir was born out of indignation: what is obvious in France – benefiting from heart surgery at birth in the event of malformation – is not so in many countries around the world.

Since 1994, we have been organizing the transfer of foreign children to France, enabling them to undergo surgery in La Chaîne de l’Espoir partner hospitals when the means to treat them do not exist in their own countries.

While these transfers to France are essential to the survival of these young patients, we felt it essential to develop other means of action to treat even more children and extend our actions. Every year, we organize over 150 medical-surgical missions to operate on children directly in their own countries, when the health situation permits, alongside local medical teams. Surgeons, doctors, anesthetists, radiologists, nurses, biomedical engineers and technicians take part in these missions on a voluntary basis.

Between 10 and 50 children, depending on their pathologies, are operated on during the course of a mission for pathologies involving all types of surgery: cardiac, orthopedic, reconstructive, neurological, visceral…

Medical transfers of children between West African countries

Alongside operations on children in France or in their own countries, we are developing medical care for children with complex heart disease at the Cuomo Cardiopediatric Center (CCPC) in Dakar, Senegal. Children from Burkina Faso, Mali, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea Conakry can benefit from operations that would be impossible to perform in their own countries.

In addition to transferring skills between caregivers, these transfers between West African countries open up new prospects for local medical teams. Until now, they had no choice but to transfer these small patients to France or Europe. These transfers to France and Europe, which are limited to a small number of children, are very costly, involve cumbersome administrative formalities and mean uprooting for the child.

Recognized surgical expertise

We operate in nearly 30 countries to provide the most vulnerable populations, especially children, with access to surgical care for the following conditions:

  • Cardiac pathologies
  • Neurological pathologies
  • Urological pathologies
  • Ophthalmological pathologies
  • Orthopedic pathologies
  • Maxillofacial pathologies
  • Visceral pathologies
  • Caustic esophageal strictures
  • Burns
  • Gynaecological and obstetric pathologies

Heart surgery: the beating heart of La Chaîne de l'Espoir

Worldwide, around one million children are born each year with a heart defect. Millions more develop heart pathologies as a result of infections. In many countries, it is impossible to operate on these cardiopathies due to a lack of suitable care structures, equipment or medical skills. With the support of La Chaîne de l’Espoir, the country’s first open-heart operations were carried out in Cambodia (2001), Afghanistan (2006), Congo (2013), Senegal (2017), Mali (2018), Burkina Faso (2021) and Madagascar (2024).

Les Sourires de l'Espoir: a new life thanks to reconstructive surgery

Particularly in Africa and Asia, reconstructive surgery is not accessible to the most isolated or disadvantaged children. Pathologies that cause facial deformities, such as cleft lip and palate or noma, cannot be treated. For children affected by noma, surgery is often a matter of life and death. We organize surgical missions, raise awareness among the population and traditional practitioners, train doctors and develop access to reconstructive surgery to offer these children a future.

Reducing disability through orthopaedic surgery

In the disadvantaged regions where La Chaîne de l’Espoir operates, malformations are not systematically treated at birth, as is the case for children born in France. Children often have to wait years for treatment, and malformations of the hands, feet or hips progress to an advanced stage. By operating on these children, as we do in Lebanon and Jordan, we enable them to live a life free of pain and mobility restrictions.

Caustic esophageal strictures

Accidental ingestion of caustic soda, a highly corrosive substance, has dramatic consequences for children who fall victim to it. These very young children can suffer severe burns of the esophagus, preventing them from eating normally and, in the most serious cases, leading to death if they do not receive specific care. In addition to medical treatment, we are developing a comprehensive program to deal with the problem in its entirety: raising awareness among the general public and professionals, training caregivers, providing psycho-social support…

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