Operation Smile International (OSI) and its Philippine counterpart are bringing free cleft lip and palate surgical services to northern Palawan on Aug. 9 to Aug. 12 to help patients with facial and oral malformations.
Provincial information officer Gil Acosta Jr. said Wednesday the OSI and its counterpart Operation Smile Philippines (OSP) will bring the on-the-house surgical operation to the Northern Palawan Provincial Hospital (NPPH) in Taytay.
Currently, prescreening in the rural health units of northern Palawan municipalities are ongoing to ensure that the candidates for operations are in good health and have the right weight.
He said the final screening of patients will be on Aug. 8 at the NPPH, and patients are advised to visit Taytay on this day to be included in the list of those who will undergo surgical operation the next day.
Dr. Lilian Arcinas, program manager of the Community Outreach Dental Program of the Provincial Health Office Dental Clinic, said the non-stock and no-profit OSI and OSP will be bringing volunteer surgeons, pediatricians, nurses, dentists and speech therapists experienced in cleft lip and palate treatment.
“Operation Smile is an international children’s medical charity that has been doing quality and free life-changing surgeries to children with cleft lip and cleft palate to bring smiles to their faces,” Arcinas said, adding they believe all children with facial malformations deserve the right to have beautiful smiles and to avoid social stigma.
She further said that around 150 patients will be catered by Operation Smile on Aug. 9. The good news, she added, is that the Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp. and the Coral Bay Nickel Corp. will shoulder the transport expenses of patients from Southern Palawan to Taytay for the prescreening and the surgery.
In October, she said Operation Smile will also be brought to southern Palawan.