Smile Train Enjoins Filipino Midwives’ Support for its Cleft Campaign

Smile Train, the leading cleft charity in the world, recently joined over 1,000 midwives from across the country and gathered at Naga City for the 2011 Integrated Midwives Association of the Philippines (IMAP) Convention. Smile Train encouraged the midwives to be more proactive in dealing with cleft lips and palates in their areas and share information on how they can help put bright, healthy smiles on the faces of children born with cleft lips and palates.

“One essential element in our goal of helping children born with clefts is early intervention. In developing countries such as the Philippines, midwives are usually the first – and sometimes, the only – healthcare professionals that our countrymen in rural areas encounter. We are very happy that we have been able to speak to so many of these important healthcare front-liners at this year’s IMAP convention because with their help, network and expertise, we know we can reach more children, especially the ones who may not know that help is available,” said Kimmy Coseteng-Flaviano, Smile Train’s Country Manager for the Philippines.

An estimated 4,500 Filipinos are born with a cleft annually, on top of an estimated 120,000 with unrepaired clefts to date. Smile Train has been offering free cleft surgery, a simple procedure that may take as little as 45 minutes, to poor Filipinos all year-round for the past 12 years. Last year, it performed over 4,400 surgeries in the Philippines through the help of 50 partner organizations, or an average of 12 cleft-related surgeries daily. The organization aims to reach even more patients this year by working with the IMAP.

“We at IMAP welcome this opportunity to provide another way of being of service to our patients. Being midwives, we are witness to how parents – regardless if they are in urban areas or the deepest corners of the country – equally want the best for their children, and how painful it is for them when they cannot get treatment simply because it is inaccessible or expensive. The free surgery provided by Smile Train that is available year-round in so many partner facilities across the country is a big, big help for patients who may otherwise just spend their whole lives as, what we call in the vernacular, bingot or ngongo,” said Patricia Gomez, President, IMAP.

The Smile Train presentation was well-received by the midwives, especially when Dr. Rico P. Nebres, a Plastic Reconstructive Aesthetic Surgeon and one of Smile Train’s accredited partners, showed different cases of cleft lip and palate in children and the end-result of beautiful smiles from the treated youngsters. According to Dr. Nebres, “The importance of operating on clefts goes beyond allowing the children to live healthier lives. It also paves the way for them to live lives free of stigma and hurdles. It only takes a simple surgery to do that and Smile Train offers it for free.”

To find out more about Smile Train and its partners in the nearest location, interested parties may call or send a message to 0917-52-TRAIN (0917-52-87246) or visit www.smiletrain.org.

About Smile Train

Smile Train is the leading cleft charity in the world, with over 1,000 partner hospitals in 80 countries. Over the past 12 years, Smile Train has provided over 650,000 free cleft surgeries in different parts of the globe, with its dedicated partner surgeons performing 300 surgeries a day. With this simple surgery, Smile Train is working to help children smile for the very first time, enabling them to explore, play with other children and go to school without being teased, thus, giving them a chance at life.