The Journey Home: 30 years of smile

credits to students.washington.edu

On NOVEMBER 8 to DECEMBER 2, 2012, Operation Smile will undertake another milestone as it celebrates its 30th year!

Operation Smile will celebrate with a special homecoming mission to the Philippines to give back to the country that gave birth to what is now a global children’s medical charity organization.  It aims to provide free life medical treatments to at least 6,000 Filipino children and young adults in 24 days through 10 dental and cleft surgical missions sites in various parts of the country, namely, Koronadal City, Cavite, Cebu, Cagayan De Oro, General Santos, Silay City, Manila, Naga and Pampanga.

Operation smile will not only give out free operations to children that have facial deformities but a new start in these children’s lives.

Here is the schedule of the operations and where they will be done. 

 

Date	Activity	Minimum Surgical Objective	Area Coverage
Jan 25 – 29	Local Cleft Surgical Mission (Mindoro)	40	Mindoro Island and Batangas
Mar 2 – 10	International Cleft Surgical Mission (Iloilo)	150	Panay Island (Iloilo, Capiz, Antique and Aklan) and Negros Occidental
Mar 16 – 23	International Craniofacial Mission (Davao City)	10	Mindanao
Mar 22-24	NCR Local Cleft Mission (Manila)	50	NCR, Bulacan, Laguna, Batangas, Cavite
May	Local Cleft Surgical Mission (La Union)	100	Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan
Oct 25-31	International Dental and Cleft Surgical Missions (South Cotabato)	5,000 dental 30 cleft	South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat
Nov 8 – 18 (1st Leg) Nov 23-Dec 1 (2nd Leg)	30th Anniversary Simultaneous Missions
	San Fernando, Pampanga	150	Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac
	Manila	150	NCR, Bulacan, Laguna, Rizal
	Cavite	150	Cavite, Batangas, Mindoro, Palawan, Marinduque
	Naga City	150	Quezon and Bicol Region
	Bacolod City	150	Region VI (Western Visayas)
	Cebu City	200	Region VII (Central Visayas) Region VIII (Eastern Visayas)
	Cagayan De Oro City	150	Region IX (Zamboanga Peninsula) Region X (Northern Mindanao) Region XIII (Caraga)
	General Santos City	150	Region XII (Socsargen) Region XI (Davao Region) ARMM
Year-round	Manila Cleft Care Center	50	Luzon
	Mindanao Cleft Center	150	Mindanao
TOTAL TREATMENTS		6,880	15 missions

Operation Smile Philippines are also in need of the following Medical Volunteers such as 

Operating Room Nurses

Ward Nurses

Anesthesiologist

Speech Pathologist

Biomed Technician

Plastic Surgeon

Dentist

Medical Photographer

Pediatrician

Medical Records Specialist

From these areas: 

Pampanga

Manila

Cavite

Naga

Bacolod

Cebu

Cagayan De Oro

General Santos

South Cotabato

Iloilo

Mindoro

Davao

Benefits of Medical Volunteers

Qualified / Credentialed Volunteers will be given proper training and receive certification from American Heart Association (AHA) in Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and Basic Life Support (BLS). You can't find this training just anywhere and Operation Smile will give it to credentialed medical volunteers for FREE, as Operation Smile Philippines is the first organization recognized as a global and mobile international training organization (ITO) of the American Heart Association.

Travel incentives - Operation Smile Philippines was able to send 31 of its volunteers to 10 countries where international missions are held, (China, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Russia, Thailand, East Timor, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Bolivia, Brazil) 

 Smile Philippines are in need of non-medical volunteers that can assist in patient mobilization, final screening, patient assistance, physical set-up, photo and video documentaion and other non-medical tasks that may be required. 

 

you can join Chatters Care For Kids Inc. as a non-medical volunteer as our objective is to help in future missions of Operation Smile especially on the 30th anniversary in November, so if you are living in these areas,  Pampanga, Manila, Cavite, Naga, Bacolod, Cebu, Cagayan De Oro, General Santos, South Cotabato, Iloilo, Mindoro and Davao , sign up below

Non-Medical Volunteers can include bloggers who can cover the event, photographers and videographers who can document the event, Filmmakers who can make a video for Operation Smile, Masscom students and graduates who can also help in making videos for Operation Smile, Graphic Artists who can make brochures, flyers, posters that will be mass produced by Operation Smile and anyone who have the kind heart and has a will to help change a child's life. 

Be a Non-Medical Volunteer - Sign up here - http://ccfk.org/get-involved

Chatters Care For Kids Inc. is doing a Tinapay at Inumin Campaign where Non-Medical Volunteers can bring bakery products , juices or bottled water that we can give to the parents,patients, and volunteers during a mission. This will help cut down Operation Smile expenses so they can buy more medical supplies and do more surgical operations, instead of using their fund to feed the volunteers.

Non-Medical Volunteers can also bring Coloring books and Crayons and play with the patients so they won't worry about their upcoming surgery.

ATTENTION: Looking for more patients with cleft lip/cleft palate for the 

May 30 to June 3, 2012 Ospital ning Angeles ( Rafael Lazatin Memorial Hospital ) Pampanga Operation Smile Mission 

Patients  can register through KDF (kapampangan development foundation)

Call or Text Benigno Ricafort President - KDF (045) 4580027 / 09175628673

On May 22, 2012 they will have free lab/xray for harelip/cleft Patients

   

The simplest way to HELP

If you can't be a volunteer or a sponsor, you can help change a life, by just spreading this news in your blog, into your social networking accounts, and by telling them to your friends,

If you have time please like Operation Smile Philippines and Chatters Care for kids Facebook Page as you'll be also spreading the news

http://www.facebook.com/operationsmilephils

http://www.facebook.com/chatterscareforkids

Much Love 

-- Alice