The Child Genital Reconstruction Surgery Program (Thien Nhan & Friends)
provides free surgeries for poor Vietnamese children suffering from severe genital birth defects or loss of genitals from trauma. It also provides family financial support and travel costs.
The program was inspired by “Miracle Baby” Thien Nhan, an infant discarded at birth and left to die in a jungle. He suffered total loss of genitals and loss of one leg from a brutal mauling by wild animals. He has since been adopted and lives happily with his new family in Hanoi, Vietnam.
After news spread of Thien Nhan’s successful surgery, poor families from throughout Vietnam came forward with their own tragic situations. This was the catalyst for philanthropist Greig Craft, and adopted mother Tran Mai Anh and Hoang Thi Na Huong’s decision to establish the program. Genital problems are not typically discussed in Asian society, but Thien Nhan’s story changed this. 576 surgeries in 15 missions have been carried since 2011.
DR. ROBERTO DECASTRO
Roberto De Castro has enjoyed an acclaimed career for 40 years. He was Director of Pediatric surgery at Maggiore Hospital, Bologna, Italy, and former Head of Pediatric Urology at the King Faisal Hospital, Saudi Arabia. He is currently Director of Pediatric Surgery & Urology at Petrucciani Hospital, Lecce, Italy. He now carries out humanitarian missions to help poor children around the world.
For the past decade, Dr. Roberto De Castro’s neo-phalloplasty has also been successfully carried out in Vietnam, and for other congenital and acquired severe penile inadequacies including phalloplasty for penile genesis, cloacal exstrophy, bladder exstrophy, hypospadias, epispadias, and traumatic and iatrogenic penile amputations.
