Opening of a third centre in Chennai
With a TV room for small patients - the Cleft-centre in Chennai, India
The fear of the imminent operation is soon forgotten: the Cleft-centre in Chennai is the only one of our Indian centres with a room for small cleft-children to play - and it also includes a TV set. For Indian children who often come from great poverty, this is nothing less than a sensation. But the TV also serves a therapeutic purpose: after the operation the children can watch films in their own language and their own regional dialect (of which there are infinitely many in India), so that they can play at pronouncing the words. The Cleft-centre in Chennai is directed by Prof. Dr. Manikandan. Working together with the Erode Foundation, the centre also organises cleft camps, which provide education and help allay people’s fears. To date 8,564 treatments have been performed.
Prof. Manikandan is now one of India's leading orthodontic surgeons. He is renowned for the development of new surgical techniques and authoring scientific papers on the treatment of facial deformities.
The Meenakshi University of Chennai awarded both Prof. Sailer as well as Mrs Erika Sailer honorary doctorates in 2015, in recognition of their great efforts and the development of the specialist department for cleft defects and orthodontic surgery at the university.