Free surgery for cleft lip, palate set

• Source:http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/local-news/2016/03/27/free-surgery-cleft-lip-palate-set-464596
• Sunday, March 27, 2016

(Sun.Star Cebu)

OPERATION Rainbow from Perth, Australia, together with the Kiwanis Club of Cebu and the Dr. Ignacio M. Cortes General Hospital in Mandaue City, will once again hold a medical mission that aims to serve more than 100 children with hare lip and/or cleft palate on May 21 to 27.

Operation Rainbow, a charitable institution, has been doing such mission since 1992, which started in Dipolog.

Since 2009, Operation Rainbow moved its annual mission to Cebu; the first mission was done in Lapu-Lapu City, and then to Mandaue City since 2011.

Dr. Tim Hewitt, a plastic surgeon, will head the team from Australia.

Among the children that benefitted from the group’s previous missions was Reymart, a boy from Barangay Luyang, San Remigio, Cebu. Before his operation, Reymart was a shy boy hiding in the family’s little house in the mountains.

Now, Reymart loves to go to school, plays with other kids and has been learning how to speak.

Apart from providing free surgery, medicine and medical supplies, Operation Rainbow also invests on hospital improvements, such as donations of medical equipment.

Last year, the group donated two operating tables for the operating room (OR) as well as two diathermy units. Operation Rainbow also provided free on-the-job training for Filipino nurses in the OR as well as in the patients recovery rooms.

The Kiwanis Club of Cebu headed by its president Dominique Pelayo partners with and supports the Operation Rainbow team, especially in preparing, communicating and organizing support for the Australian team.

Leo Tacke is the Kiwanis project leader for this operation in Cebu.

The screening of patients is set on May 21. It will start at 8 a.m.

For registration, which is ongoing, call 0922-8570304 or (032) 345-1486 local 105. Pre-registration is required.

For more information, call Leo Tacke at 0917-6271285.