Good News
Children set for surgery in Bloemfontein during Smile Week─── 16:21 Mon, 04 Sep 2017
Universitas Academic Hospital in Bloemfontein will be hosting Smile Week, where various procedures will be performed on a total of 26 children with facial anomalies throughout the week.
Surgery on these children started on Monday. The inisiative will end on Friday. According to the Executive Director of the Smile Foundation, Hedley Lewis, the week is sponsored by the Vodacom Foundation in an effort to make a difference in the lives of these children and their families. The Smile Foundation works together with the National Department of Health and ten academic hospitals across the country in order to help children with facial anomalies. Some of the procedures that are performed on these children include cleft and palate reconstruction, craniofacial surgery, ear and nose reconstructive surgeries as well as treatment for Moebius Syndrome and burned survivor interventions.
Lewis says the foundation is there for hospitals and families. For hospitals, they try to assist with consumables or additional staff. For the families of children with facial anomalies, they try to create a stress-free environment for the families by taking care of transport, accommodation, psychologists, speech therapists and special bottles for children with cleft lips or palates. The foundation works alongside various organisations like
The Association of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons of Southern Africa (APRASSA) to develop future surgeons who can help make a difference in the lives of children who suffer from these facial anomalies in the future, says Lewis.
The foundation is also interested in generating awareness so that families and guardians will be able to ask for help when they have a child with a facial anomaly. Anyone can make a difference in a child’s life by keeping up to date with the foundation’s social media profiles and referring families they think might benefit from what the foundation offers. Lewis says the 26 children, who will have procedures performed on them at Universitas Hospital this week will be supported throughout the year, it’s just that during Smile Week, there is more staff and efforts are intensified, but the children and their families will be supported throughout the year.
OFM News/Olebogeng Motse
