Dr. Kimit Rai
Kimit Rai, Clinical Instructor in UBC’s Department of Surgery, is the proud recipient of the Faculty Community Service Award, part of seven UBC Achievement Awards that recognizes inspiring members of the UBC community who, through their extraordinary activities, have connected the university with communities both near and far to create positive change. The award recipients will be recognized this November, at the alumni UBC Achievement Awards event held at the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver.
Dr. Rai is the president and founder of Operation Rainbow Canada (ORC), a non-profit organization that provides free cleft lip and palate corrective surgery to impoverished children and young adults in developing countries. Without surgery, these children often have difficulty nursing or eating, resulting in chronic malnutrition. They can grow up with dental or speech problems, and may be subject to ostracization. Dr. Rai’s humanitarian interventions have so far transformed the lives of more than 2,000 children and their families. The organization has successfully completed 23 missions in nine countries. It has no paid staff. Dr. Rai serves as both teacher and mentor on the missions, providing education and hands-on training to the Canadian medical residents who volunteer their time, and the health care professionals in the host countries. Operation Rainbow has also trained Canadian plastic surgery residents, as well as anesthesia fellows and paediatric residents in BC Children’s Hospital.
As an internationally recognized plastic surgeon with more than 25 years of clinical experience, Dr. Rai’s work has been published extensively and he is a frequent speaker at educational symposiums. He’s held numerous distinguished positions, including Chief of Surgery for the Simon Fraser Health Region, and president of the north west society of plastic surgeons and of the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr. Rai is an inspirational leader whose work has improved the lives of thousands of underprivileged children and provided invaluable training for Canadian health professionals and those in host countries who will carry on the work. In 2013, he was the recipient of a Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award.