[Medical exchange between faculty of medicine, university of the Ryukyus and Laos country. Medical support with a cleft lip and palate treatment].

The Faculty of Medicine, University of the Ryukyus, started a "Public Health Project in Lao P.D.R.", which is one of the JICA projects, in 1992, and has been carrying out the "Sethathirath Hospital Improvement Project" since 1999 to improve medical treatment and health care in Lao P.D.R. Marked progress has been made. In addition, the projects of "Medical support for cleft lip and palate patients" performed by both the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department of the University of the Ryukyus Hospital and Okinawa-Laos Cleft Lip and Palate Support Center have continued since 2001. So far, 231 cleft lip and palate patients have benefited from these projects, and favorable effects of medical education and technology transfer for medical staff in Laos have been obtained. Furthermore, during the 3-year period of another JICA project, called "From tooth brushing to oral health--Oral care education for Laos children", the dental caries rate of children in Donkoi Elementary School in Laos reduced from 92.5 to 61.8%, showing a decrease of 30.7%. Based on these encouraging results, in 2012, the JICA started a larger partnership project named 'Cha-ganzyu', which is from the dialect of Okinawa meaning health forever, focusing on oral health improvement of school children and local people of Laos.