Smile foundation to change lives

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Thirty-eight Eastern Cape children who were born with cleft lips will get a new lease on life.

Thanks to the Smile Foundation and the Mmela Family they will receive much needed facial reconstructive surgery.

A team of doctors will perform the surgery at the Provincial Hospital in Port Elizabeth from Monday 13 August to Friday 17.

Funding for the week has been provided by the Mmela family, headed by a "private businessman that has an interest in giving back to the community", says Moira Gerszt Chief Operating Officer of Smile Foundation.

"This modest, philanthropic family has requested that no further details other than their surname be disclosed," she said.

The Smile Foundation says "some of the children that will be receiving surgery have been identified during an outreach programme run by the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at PE Provincial Hospital with the support of the Smile Foundation.

This programme saw the team travel to areas such as Grahamstown, Cradock and Graaff Reinet.

Gerszt says "this initiative by the Eastern Cape Department of Health supported by the Smile Foundation, has been very successful. Patients were assessed in their clinics, and they received dates for their children to be operated upon in the academic hospital in Port Elizabeth. For the first time ever, Smile Foundation was able to reach out to people that are not able to come to the Foundation."

Currently one in 750 South African children is born with a facial condition.

The Smile Foundation has been partnering with academic hospitals in South Africa for over 11 years to assist underprivileged children with facial conditions, alleviating backlogs in the hospitals, encouraging skills transfer, offering psychological help before and after surgery and supporting hospital infrastructure.

It says "to date, almost 1000 children have benefited from surgeries around the country through the partnership with state academic hospitals."