Facing the World
722. Katrin Kandel
Katrin Kandel is the Executive Director of ‘Facing the World’, a charity that provides facial reconstructive surgery for children in Vietnam with severe and often life-threatening craniofacial disfigurements.
The charity sends teams of world-leading UK doctors to train Vietnamese medics; partners with pharmaceutical companies to donate equipment to Vietnamese hospitals; and provides training fellowships for Vietnamese doctors at a number of UK hospitals, including Great Ormond Street, Chelsea and Westminster and Guy’s and St Thomas’.
Under Katrin’s leadership, UK doctors have treated hundreds of children at hospitals in Hanoi and Da Nang. The specialist training they provide means that Vietnamese doctors are now able perform up to 100 complex surgeries independently.
In a personal letter to Katrin, Prime Minister Theresa May said: 
“Under your leadership at ‘Facing the World’, inspirational partnerships have been built between UK and Vietnamese doctors, helping to provide life-changing surgeries for hundreds of children in Hanoi and Da Nang.”
Katrin said:
“Facing the World is a collaborative effort between the charity’s dedicated doctors in the UK and equally committed doctors in Vietnam. Together they are working to create sustainable craniofacial units in Vietnam capable of treating the thousands of children born there each year with horrific facial birth defects. It is gratifying and an honour to receive the recognition of the charity’s efforts both from the Prime Minister and the UK Government. It is a privilege to be part of the charity.”
