The Virginia Children’s Connection (VCC) is a non-profit medical volunteer organization based in Charlottesville Virginia. VCC was started to meet the vast need for facial and reconstructive surgery in rural India, due to cleft lip and cleft palate birth defect rates. VCC has been going to Giridih, India since 1989

Giridih is a rural area of India 355 kilometers northwest of Kolkata. The VCC mission trips would not be possible without the tireless support of the Rotary International of Giridih. VCC has also had two mission trips to Moca in the Dominican Republic in collaboration with Physicians For Peace.

VCC teams are made up of a mix of doctors specializing in plastic surgery, reconstructive surgery, hand surgery, ophthalmology, dentistry, oral surgery and pediatrics anesthesia. The additional members of the teams are made up of nurses, certified surgical technologist, medical students and volunteers. VCC has 501C-3 tax status. At home in Charlottesville the Albemarle Rotary has been a consistent supporter of the mission trips since VCC’s inception.

VCC is continuing the mission trips. VCC collects and transports all of the necessary supplies for the week long mission trip. Originally the majority of patients have needed cleft lip and cleft palate repair. Over the past 30 years our patients have expanded to include the release of severe burn contractures on necks and arms. Currently there is no other realistic option for these patients for this debilitating consequence of a horrible burn to the skin. Additional procedures include: scar and skin lesions, syndactyly repair and microtia.