Operation Smile screening set March 19 to 20

MANILA, Philippines -   Over 250 children with cleft lip and cleft palate deformities and other facial deformities will soon experience a life-changing surgery as the Mariquita Salimbangon Yeung Charitable Foundation, Inc. will be hosting this year the Operation Smile International Medical Mission here in Cebu.

Mission coordinator Monet Aliño said that all patients for the said mission are advised to proceed to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center on March 19 and 20 for screening.

 Aliño said that the surgery is scheduled from March 21 to 25, this year, at the VSMMC.

Aliño said that Operation Smile in partnership with MSY Charitable Foundation has so far treated almost 3,000 children and young adults for the past 12 years in Cebu.

A benefit concert was held last January which features concert king Martin Nievera and concert queen Pops Fernandez dubbed as “Together Again” at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel for the benefit of the said mission.

Part of the concert’s proceeds will go the mission wherein more than 40 international volunteers of plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, students, and dentists join this medical event.

Aliño said that several foreign volunteers will be participating in the forthcoming mission who will complement the local plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists and other medical professionals from across the country.

Salimbangon-Yeung said that her foundation, of which she is the founder, adopted Operation Smile International Medical Mission as major project because in our country, statistics are saddening wherein for every 500 babies born, one will inevitably be cleft.

In a hospital setting, the procedure would cost some P50,000 to P60,000 per surgery. But with MSY Foundation and Operation Smile it is totally free.

The MSY foundation is expected to shell out between P1.5 million to P2 million for the annual expenses that cover primarily the transport and accommodation costs for the medical volunteers from across the country and some from abroad. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/MEEV