s w e N e l i Sm
Issue 10
We’ve had a good year so far but our work must continue to bring new smiles to thousands of children waiting for us around the world. Right now, we’re gearing up to conduct a number of medical missions and our goal is to reach the many children we were forced to leave behind because they were sick. We can’t let these little ones down – with your help, we won’t.
Ju €180 ast 45 minnd a operat ute io chang n can child’s e a life
You help deliver medical supplies, provide safe surgery and train local doctors and nurses who carry on our work after we’re gone. You give new lives and renewed hope. And we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Co-founders, Operation Smile
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Honduras twins undergo surgery together Lioia Maria Varega sat with her 1 year-old daughter, Katherine, in her arms, waiting silently for surgery in the child life room. Nervously bouncing her knee, Lioia kept a smile on her face, though her eyes spoke otherwise. As soon as Katherine’s attention and cheer turned to a windup dancing chicken toy, Lioia allowed the tears to stream down her face, wiping them away with her palm. This is Lioia’s third child born with a cleft. Rocio, a Honduran psychologist with Operation Smile in Honduras, squatted down next to Lioia: “There’s nothing to worry about. She will have the best care. Don’t worry,” she consoled in Spanish, smiling and giving Lioia a reassuring hand on the shoulder. Lioia and her husband, Jorge, brought their twins to this medical mission in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Their son, Donari, has a unilateral cleft lip, and their daughter has a bilateral cleft lip and palate. Donari was already out of surgery and reunited with his favourite green football by the time his sister was getting ready for surgery. Rocio guided Lioia and other waiting parents in the child life room through a step-by-step binder with photos explaining the surgical process. Her presentation ended with several pages of photos showing successful surgery outcomes and elated children. The child life area is a place where volunteers engage in play therapy with patients before they are accompanied to the operating theatre. While the children are occupied, medical volunteers help explain to parents exactly what their child is about to go through. Although Lioia listened intently, she already knew the process. Jorge and Lioia have a 7-year-old son who received surgery on his cleft lip at 8 months old from
>> H ONDURAS Operation Smile. Even though she’s been through the process before, nothing can quell a mother’s worry, she said. Speaking through a translator Lioia said, “I’m happy, excited, but nervous, I know she will be ok, but I’m still scared for her.” She said her oldest son is doing great and he hardly has a scar from surgery. “When Katherine and Donari were born, I was scared but not as scared as I was with my older boy, This time we knew what to do. We had hope. We knew that Operation Smile could help us again.” The family walked for two hours and took a bus for four hours to make it to the Operation Smile medical mission, the same journey they completed six years earlier for their son.
Lioia said she would go any distance to get help for her children. “There is a solution for my children. Operation Smile gives the solution. We don’t have money to go to a private clinic for help,” she said. “I feel very happy for Operation Smile. Thank you, thank you for helping all my children.”
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Operation Smile in Honduras
Population: 8,598,561 Area: 112,090 sq km Capital: Tegucigalpa
Since 1997, Operation Smile has conducted medical programmes in six cities across Honduras, including San Pedro Sula, Santa Rosa de Copan, and Tegucigalpa. A year round cleft lip and cleft palate care centre in Tegucigalpa offers free surgeries to patients with postoperative care and also offers continuous dental and orthodontics care, paediatrics care, speech therapy, audiology and
psychology consultations. Operation Smile’s global volunteer network includes more than 50 medical professionals as well as hundreds of non-medical volunteers from Honduras. Over the past 18 years, Operation Smile has treated more than 3,600 patients in Honduras with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities.
r e e t n lu o V e h t t e e M Dr Charles Kabetu: A chance to give back Dr Kabetu was first introduced to Operation Smile when a friend put him on a list to assist on our first medical mission in Kenya. As one of Kenya’s few paediatric anaesthetists, his role would be vital. When the medical mission began, Dr Kabetu’s heart was deeply touched: “I saw this big team that had come from around the world to operate on our kids with cleft lip and cleft palate,” he said. “I thought, I have to be a part of it, to help our kids too. To give back.” Dr Kabetu is still a regular medical volunteer – and his passion for Operation Smile has only got stronger. “I got excited seeing that we are actually making an impact,” Dr Kabetu said. “We’re able to actually transform the physical and psychological way these patients have been living their lives.” Dr Kabetu estimates Operation Smile has changed the lives of over 9,000 children with a cleft lip or cleft palate in Kenya. Plus, more hospitals are adopting higher standards of care, thanks to Dr Kabetu and other volunteers who train local doctors and nurses so that surgeries can continue after Operation Smile’s international teams depart. Operation Smile’s impact in Kenya reaches far beyond the children who receive surgery. Operation Smile has also served to change the perception of cleft deformities in the
community and influenced the daily practice of Kenyan doctors. “When we work with so many teams from around the world, it helps us to diversify the way we treat our patients and the way we look at our clinical procedures and we have been able to utilise that knowledge in our normal practice,” Dr Kabetu said. “My practice as an anaesthetist and hospital administrator has actually grown from the knowledge I’ve gained from being a volunteer with Operation Smile.”
If you’re medically qualified and you’d like to be a volunteer with Operation Smile, or you know someone else who might want to get involved as a volunteer, please email us at info@operationsmile.ie or call us on 01 667 6659.
>> GLOBAL STRATEGY Our global strategy leverages the core competencies and experience of Operation Smile to dramatically increase our programme activities with a focus on solving the problems of children born with cleft lip and cleft palate. Our strategy has four key approaches.
1. Eradication:
In many smaller countries where we operate, our investment in missions, education, training, and centres has helped develop a health care system able to meet the demands of new cases (i.e. babies born every year with cleft lip and cleft palate), but not sufficient to deal with the backlog of patients. Our goal is to eradicate this backlog so that the health infrastructure, inclusive of Operation Smile, can take care of the new caseload and address any ongoing health needs of the treated population.
2. Increasing Surgical Capacity: We also operate in a group of countries that have large populations and very limited health systems. Focusing exclusively on large-scale cleft treatment programmes is out of step with the health needs of these countries and would unbalance their health systems. We believe we need to improve these countries’ abilities to grow treatment for cleft lip and cleft palate by increasing their surgical capacity. Our approach in these countries will utilise Operation Smile’s core competencies in deploying surgery programmes, logistics and supplies, our global network of volunteers, education and training.
3. Sustained Activity: Our focus for the remainder of countries will be to sustain our current programmes while increasing effectiveness and efficiency. We evaluate these countries continuously for opportunities to move them into the ‘Eradication’ or ‘Increased Surgical Capacity’ approaches.
4. Knowledge Driven Organisation: After 33 years of growth, the reality is that across the world, all of the easy-to-access patients have been reached by Operation Smile and organisations like it. Yet, there is still a significant backlog of patients who are resilient to the traditional approaches of patient recruitment and we do not know why. By focusing on understanding these patients, we will be able to develop new programmes to address the barriers to treatment they experience and so bring them the treatment they need. The World Health Organization states that the delivery of safe surgical care is an essential service that should be available through any functioning health system. Working with them, we seek to make Operation Smile a world leader in the provision and advocacy of safe surgery. If you have any questions or want to discuss any part of our global strategy further, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01 667 6659. Alternatively, you can email us at info@operationsmile.ie
Thank you!!! During our Christmas appeal, we asked supporters to write messages of support in cards for children to receive post surgery. Here are some of the pictures from our recent mission to Ghana as well as some of the touching messages we received. Thank you to all those who sent the cards back and helped put smiles on the children’s faces.
Planned Mission Schedule for 2016 27 July - 06 August 2016
Morocco
Beni-Mallal
21 - 27 August 2016 Honduras
Santa Rosa de Copan
25 August - 02 September 2016
Mexico
Puebla
01 September 2016
Paraguay
Asunción
02 – 11 September 2016 Guatemala Guatemala City 03 – 10 September 2016
Morocco
El Jadida
16 – 23 September 2016
Madagascar
Antsirabe
01 October 2016
Bolivia
Santa Cruz
01 October 2016
Dominican Santo Republic Domingo
7 – 14 October 2016
Ethiopia
Addis Ababa
09 – 29 October 2016
Rwanda
Rwinkwavu
28 October - 02 November 2016
Brazil
Fortaleza
01 November 2016
Nicaragua
Managua
01 November 2016
Ethiopia
Jimma
10 – 18 November 2016 Mexico Yucatan (Oaxaca) 16 – 22 November 2016
Swaziland
Mbabane
07 – 11 December 2016
Honduras
Tegucigalpa
Update from Katerin We wrote to some of our supporters earlier in the year asking you to help us keep our promise to return to help children. One of those children whose story we shared was Katerin from Nicaragua. Katerin was screened on May 15, 2015 in Esteli, Nicaragua at Hospital San Juan de Dios. She was put on the surgery schedule but came down with an infection just before her surgery date. She was admitted to the hospital and Operation Smile volunteer Paediatrician, Dr Jill Gora had to explain to Katerin’s mother, Angela that her daughter wasn’t well enough for surgery. Thankfully, with the help of our supporters, we returned to Nicaragua in April for another mission and we are pleased to report that Katerin finally received surgery to repair her cleft lip.
>> MISSION SPOTLIGHT: COLOMBIA
Milestone of 20,000 smiles in April 2016. Since 1988, Operation Smile have conducted medical programmes in 36 cities across Colombia. Year round comprehensive care services are offered in Duitama and in Operation Smile’s permanent care centre in Bogotá. The multidisciplinary centres in Bogotá and Duitama offer surgeries, speech therapy, psychology consultations, dental and orthodontic care, nutrition consultations and social work consultations. For families unable to travel to Bogotá or Duitama, Operation Smile have developed a national programme, where credentialed volunteers train local medical professionals to provide follow-up services. Operation Smile’s global medical volunteer network includes hundreds of Colombian medical professionals, who care for children in Colombia and around the world and in April 2016, Operation Smile reached a major milestone by delivering its 20,000th smile in Colombia.
>> O PERATION SMILE STUDENT PROGRAMMES Operation Smile Ireland Chairman, Jack O’Keeffe, reminisces on his mission experience in Ouarzazate, Morocco.
impressed by the military like precision and professionalism of the operation. We had a team of about 100 volunteer doctors and nurses, many from Morocco, but also from all over the world. Despite many of the team only having met each other for the first time they gelled together almost effortlessly, all rowing together towards a common goal. Their commitment was humbling and truly inspirational. Then there were the families. As a father of four, I can only imagine the pain that must come with the hopeless situation that many of Operation Smile’s patients and their families find themselves in. Being born in a poor country with cleft lip or cleft palate can be a life sentence of misery and isolation. Witnessing the joy and relief of the parents who brought their children to the Operation Smile mission for free treatment of the highest standard was a great privilege. Sending them on their way after a 45 minute surgery that costs only €180 with bright futures ahead of them, well let’s just say I’ve worked in the financial sector for my career, and I’ve rarely seen such a sound return on investment, not to mention of course the real improvement in that person’s life and the enjoyment of same. Thank you to all our donors, and volunteers who make this investment possible.
In March I had the opportunity to attend my first medical mission with Operation Smile in Ouarzazate, Morocco. Having been involved with the organisation for several years, I felt I had a good understanding of the great work being undertaken, but like many things in life, nothing can prepare you for the real thing.
Watching good people from widely different cultures, but with similar values, come together to alleviate the pain and suffering of children reminded me that what we have in common is far greater than what divides us. I left Morocco feeling empowered to play my role to help as many children as possible, and with a great sense of hope for the future.
Our Irish team of four, including plastic surgeon Dr. Eoin O’Broin and anaesthetist Dr. Dermot Gowan, arrived in Ouarzazate and hit the ground running. I was immediately
The Board of Directors of Operation Smile Ireland is completely voluntary, and no Director receives payment of any kind from his or her involvement.
Plea our wese see the late bsite for and fo st news, on Facllow us and Twebook itter
01 6676659 • operationsmile.ie Charity Reg No.CHY 15661
You’re amazing! Thanks to all who’ve fundraised for smiles over the last few months…
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Student volunteer, Siobhán Hynes, arranged a hike with friends
Our Mini-Marathoners took to the streets in force on the June Bank Holiday weekend
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▲ Frank Moynihan hosted ‘Fresh Food 2016, An Evening of Food Tasting’ in Kilfenora, in April and raised over €1,400 for Operation Smile…
>> GET INVOLVED
>> Y OU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
World Smile Day – Join our Smile Crew for October 2016
Every 3 minutes, a child is born with a cleft lip or cleft palate, preventing them from eating properly, speaking clearly or even smiling.
Help raise awareness and funds for Operation Smile in October by volunteering for World Smile Day, Friday 7th October, 2016! l
Shake a bucket for a few hours at one of our street collections around the country.
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Organise a few of your family/friends and run your own bucket collection with our support.
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Host a coffee morning or bake sale for your family and friends, or at work during the month of October.
For more information contact us at:– info@operationsmile.ie or call 01 667 6659
A simple operation could save their lives, but their Mums and Dads simply don’t have the money. It takes as little as 45 minutes and €180 EUR to change their lives forever. You can make a difference, please help.
Feedback!
We want to hear from our supporters. If you have any comments or suggestions for us, please email info@operationsmile.ie Experience the joy of a child’s transformation by watching our YouTube videos. Get real-time updates on our Twitter feed @OpSmileIrl Then share the smiles and spread the word on Facebook. Once you’ve read this issue of ‘Smile News’ help us to raise awareness of our work by sharing it with family and friends, or leaving it at your doctor’s surgery for others to read.