Operation Smile medical mission, a yearly activity of the Mariquita Salimbangon Yeung Charitable Foundation, Inc., will end today its registration of indigents, with cleft lips or cleft palates, who want to avail themselves of free surgery.
The screening dates are on February 22 and 23 while the surgery dates are on February 25 to March 1 at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.
The registration for Operation Smile started last January 1, and was held at the Out-Patient Department of the VSMMC, and in health centers of towns and barangays in the Cebu City and province.
Operation Smile Cebu Mission site coordinator Monette Aliño said that three free surgery will be exclusive only to indigents, a year-old and above for those with cleft lips and at least three-year-old for those with cleft palates. All must be in good health also, she said.
The foundation has been accepting volunteers also for the medical mission.
Every year since 1998, the foundation sponsors the Operation Smile medical mission involving the operation or surgery on children and young adults suffering from facial deformities. Since then, almost 3,000 patients benefited from the mission.
There are many donors to this mission from private corporations, individuals, and public agencies. The project was been brought to Cebu City with the help of VSMMC, Operation Smile Philippines Foundation, Inc., Operation Smile International, Cebu provincial government, Cebu City government, Department of Health, and Cebu’s medical community. — Jasmin R. Uy/RAE