QUEEN’S ROAD: Smile Train is an international children’s charity with a sustainable approach to a single, solvable problem, cleft lip and palate. Millions of children in developing countries with flawed clefts live in shame, but more importantly, have difficulty eating, breathing and speaking. Cleft repair surgery is simple, and the transformation is immediate.
The sustainable model provides training and funding to empower local doctors in more than 85 developing countries to perform 100 per cent free cleft repair surgery in their communities. Now, Smile Train in association with Rashtriya Bal Kalyan Karyakram, a part of National Health Mission has signed an MoU. Under the MoU, all the children born with cleft lip and palate will be directed to nine Smile Train partner hospitals in Karnataka for free cleft lip and palate surgery. The MOU is valid for a period of 11 months starting from July 25 and is renewable on mutual consent.
National Health Mission, Karnataka under the aegis of Department of Health and Family Services, Government of Karnataka will coordinate with Reproductive Child Health Officers (RCHO), Taluk Health Officer(THO) and Taluk Health Education Officer in all 24 districts and keep them posted about the free cleft lip and palate treatment. Registration and all treatment related to cleft provided at Smile Train partner hospitals is absolutely free.
Families can contact their respective RCHO/ THO for a referral.
Travel subsidy will be provided to patients who cannot afford travel cost. The surgeries will be provided at the following Smile Train centers across the state, Bengaluru (Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital), Mangalore (A J Hospital and Research Centre, K.S. Hegde Charitable Hospital, Unity Health Complex - Face Foundation), Davangere (Bapuji Hospital), Belgaum (KLES Dr.Prabhakar Kore Hospital & MRC), Raichur (M.K. Bhandari Hospital), Gulbarga (Medicare Multispeciality Hospital), Dharwad (SDM College of Dental Sciences & Hospital) and Mysuru (Vikram Hospital & Heart Care).
Leela Imam, Director (Programmes), Smile Train says, “Smile Train has completed 29,956 surgeries in the state of Karnataka in the last 15 years.The excellent network of State mobile health teams and Anganwadi workers at the grassroots level will enable Smile Train to reach out to every child born with cleft lip and palate. More than 10 lakh untreated cases of cleft exist in the country, due to monetary constraints or lack of awareness. Slowly, we can bridge the gap and heal the cleft.” More information on http://www.smiletrainindia.org/