Kids with cleft lip to undergo free surgery

CEBU, Philippines — Over a hundred indigent children with facial deformities will soon be wearing perfect smiles.

These children born with cleft lips and palates are the beneficiaries of this year's three-day Filipino-Chinese Friendship Medical Mission.

It will start today and will end tomorrow, July 7.

Screening will start today, while surgeries will be on July 6 and 7 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Cebu North General Hospital in Barangay Talamban, Cebu City.

It will be conducted by over a hundred surgeons and non-medical volunteers from China and Philippines.

Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung, whose foundation supports the mission, urged parents of children with cleft lips and palates to avail themselves of the free operation, which would take at least two hours per patient.

The operation usually costs from P70,000 to P100,000.

Doctor Han Kai, China team leader, said cleft lip and/or palate, for example, occurs in approximately one per 600 births worldwide.

"We will try our best to help these children. Bringing their smiles back would be an honor. We want these kids to have a normal face, a normal life," he said.

The World Health Organization has estimated that 80 percent of orofacial clefts are nonsyndromic and of multifactorial origin, both genetic and environmental, the latter being especially important in prevention.

Vivina Chui, medical director of Mariquita Salimbangon Yeung Charitable Foundation Incorporated (MSYCFI), cited scientific studies showing that pregnant mothers who lack folic acid are at risk of having a baby with deformities, including cleft lip and palate.

MSYCFI has also been sponsoring Operation Smile Cebu Mission for the last 20 years.

Over 6,000 children with cleft lips and cleft palates benefited from the free medical mission, which started in 1998 in Cebu City. — KBQ (FREEMAN)