VCMC to host this year’s Operation Smile

CEBU, Philippines - The Visayas Community Medical Center (VCMC) in Osmeña Boulevard, Cebu City will host this year’s Operation Smile Cebu Mission, now on its 19th year.

Monette Aliño, the executive director of Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung Charitable Foundation, Inc. (MSYCFI), has announced the ongoing registration for free surgery for cleft lip and cleft palate at barangay health centers in the City and the Province of Cebu.

Aliño said registration forms are also available at the MSYCFI office located at the 12th floor of MSY Tower, Pescadores Road, Cebu Business Park which can be contacted through telephone number 231-0961, local 155.

Registration period is until February 20 while the screening period is set on February 25 from 7 a.m. up to 4 p.m. at VCMC.

The surgery dates are set on February 27 to March 2 from 7 a.m. up to 4 p.m. and on March 3 from 7 a.m. up to 12 noon at VCMC.

The activity is done through the partnership of Operation Smile Philippines and Adventist Development and Relief Agency.

This free reconstructive surgery often lasts only for 45 minutes and will transform the lives of cleft children forever, said Aliño.

Operation Smile is a major project of MSYCFI and has helped children with facial deformities. This type of surgery normally costs around P60,000 to P100,000.

Since 1998, around 5,000 children have already benefitted from the Operation Philippines Smile Medical Mission.

Operation Smile began in the Philippines with its first mission in Naga City, Camarines Sur in 1982.  Founders Doctor William Magee and his wife, Kathy, a nurse and social worker, traveled to the Philippines with a group of medical volunteers to repair children’s cleft lips and cleft palates. (FREEMAN)