Nearly 100 disadvantaged children born with cleft lips, cleft palates in Northern Vietnam will get free surgeries under the medical charity mission by Vietnam International Bank (VIB) and Operation Smile Vietnam (OSV).
The mission will take place at the Vietnam Cuba Friendship Hospital – 37 Hai Ba Trung street, Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi on June 18-22.
Accordingly, under-privileged families that have children born with cleft lips, cleft palates are encouraged to take their children to the Vietnam Cuba Friendship Hospital for being screened by doctors and experts from Operation Smile and facial surgery division of the hospital on June 18, then be operated on June 19-22.
Patients will be provided with free surgeries and travel allowance, food and medical assistance while staying at hospital. Post-operative checking will be free of charge at specific time, including one week, six months, and one year after operation.
VIB’s staff give gifts and join in volunteer activities before and after surgeries for patients and their families.
For many years, VIB has accompanied OSV on a pathway to change lives of disadvantaged children born with cleft lips, cleft palates by providing free and safe surgeries. It is one of the activities of VIB towards the community, aiming to contribute to the economic and social development in general and improve the quality of life for under-privileged people in particular.
In 2017, VIB coordinated with Operation Smile to provide medical consultations and free surgeries for nearly 200 children with cleft lips, cleft palates through several medical missions conducted in different provinces in Vietnam. Moreover, VIB and OSV have trained phonetics for nearly 400 families of patients across the country. Not limited in financial support, VIB employees directly or indirectly contributed their time, effort, expertise to support Operation Smile in missions in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and become encouragement as well as spiritual supporters to patients and their families.
After 29 years since Operation Smile’s first medical mission to Vietnam in 1989, the largest volunteer-based organization has been providing medical consultations and safe surgeries for more than 40,000 and 27,000 children respectively.
Vietnam is one of the countries with the highest proportion of children with cleft lips, cleft palates in the world. According to preliminary statistics, about 3,000 children were born with facial deformity (1/700 ratio) in Vietnam each year along with approximately 10,000 patients who have not been operated on around the country. Meanwhile, it takes as little as 45 minutes to repair a cleft lip and/or a cleft palate, changing a child’s life forever.