Building for ‘children’s smiles’in Cebu
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 07:21:00 03/08/2008
AFTER years of sponsoring delicate surgery for children with facial deformities, supporters of Operation Smile can look forward to a permanent headquarters in Cebu City.
Businesswoman Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung of the MSY Foundation promised to build a center for this inside the compound of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).
She spoke before about 700 women in yesterday's 8th Womens Congress of the Province of Cebu.
The five-storey building will provide surgery for any kind of facial deformity not only to poor children in Cebu but to patients from the Visayas and Mindanao.
“The center is expected to provide the highest quality of medical care for cleft lip and cleft palate patients from the Visayas and Mindanao,” Salimbangon-Yeung said.
The center will be built in cooperation with the Cebu provincial government and the Operation Smile International.
Since Operation Smile began eight years ago in Cebu, more than 3,000 children have “smiled again” after undergoing operations for cleft lips and cleft palates.
“As long as there are children with deformities, my MSY (Mariquta Salimbangon-Yeung) Foundation will continue to graciously host the Operation Smile,” she said.
The global volunteer medical services organization flies in surgeons to undertake reconstructive surgery for free to indigents.
It started in Cebu in 1998 after she met plastic surgeon Dr. James Joaquino, who introduced her to the grup. This was also the start of the MSY Foundation. Gov. Gwen Garcia, chairman of the Provincial Womens Commission (PWC), and Provincial Board Member Agnes Magpales, co-chair, received awards for their contribution to the campaign of protecting women from exploitation and abuse. Reporter Nilda L. Gallo
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