Operation Smile turns 35, taps Leni as PH ambassador

Operation Smile has tapped Vice President Leni Robredo as ambassador to its Philippine campaign that would expand the grant of reconstructive facial surgery to indigent children and young adults.

In a video message, Robredo accepted the Smile ambassador role, vowing to help in the advocacy of safe surgery, which she said is “often overlooked when discussing public health.”

“With this new campaign, you’re telling the world that you will not stop until every person in the world with cleft lip and palate is healed. You will not stop until you provide access to medical treatment to those often denied it,” she said.

While the volunteer medical services organization has treated some 300,000 persons with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities worldwide, billions of people still do not have access to safe surgery.

In its 35th year, Operation Smile is launching its “Until We Heal” global campaign to broaden the reach of safe surgery to save and transform more lives.

On Thursday’s launch of the campaign at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City, Dr. Bill Magee Jr., cofounder and chief executive officer, said “compassion gave birth to Operation Smile.”

In 1982, Magee and his wife Kathy took part in a medical mission in Naga City where they treated 40 of 300 children with cleft conditions.

“Everyone of those kids had a gaping hole on the mouth,” he said, adding that they could neither speak nor eat.

“In just 45 minutes, it was hopelessness to opportunity. Forty-five minutes changed their lives,” he said, referring to how long it takes for a cleft lip or palate corrective surgery.

When the Magees were about to leave the Philippines, the mother of an 8-year-old girl with a cleft condition whom they were unable to treat approached them with a bundle of bananas.

“She told us, ‘This is a gift for trying to help my daughter.’  We told her we would return next year although we knew we could not. The lady was crying and my wife and I were in tears. It was at that moment that Operation Smile was born. Reason leads to conclusions but emotions lead to action,” Magee said.

“Operation Smile is not about any one of us. It is about the collaborative energy and talent of every single one of us coming together to do something spectacular,” he said.

“Until we heal every child, our job is not done. Surgery doesn’t exist for at least four billion people in the world… More kids die from lack of access to surgery every year than from malaria, AIDS or any other disease combined. We have to find a way to train people, to bring surgery that’s safe to our world,” Magee said.

He urged medical workers, particularly in the Philippines, to recommit to eliminating the surgery backlog and to “spread the Filipino spirit around the world.”

Robredo spokesperson Georgina Hernandez assured Operation Smile that as ambassador, the Vice President will take an active part in the advocacy campaign, particularly through the identification of patients in far-flung and marginalized areas and the mobilization of resources.

Hernandez said that the support, through the Angat Buhay project of the Office of the Vice President, would not only be medical but would involve educational and livelihood assistance for their parents to ensure children are properly nourished.

She said that all sectors must come together to make safe surgery possible and transform lives.

The Boy Scouts of the Philippines has been tapped to locate more patients in remote areas through a Smartphone application, developed by Smart Philippines, which doubles as a digital patient registry.

From 1982 to 2017, Operation Smile has treated more than 30,000 cleft patients in the Philippines in 311 missions. This year, Operation Smile is targeting some 2,200 patients, with 18,000 still untreated. According to data from Operation Smile, 4,500 children are born with a cleft condition annually in the country.