Over 100 million people are currently displaced worldwide. Being a refugee means that your children will not have easy access to many services we take for granted, especially access to life-saving surgery. If a child with a cleft condition is born in a refugee context, there is almost no chance this child can get the surgery they need to live a health normal life.
Operation Smile has declared a commitment to create brighter futures for people with cleft conditions of all backgrounds and countries of origin. Last year, we launched the Transcending Borders Initiative to create more resilient and inclusive health systems that can serve the needs of migrant populations.
We are currently running a campaign to provide this life saving intervention to refugee children in Colombia and Egypt.
In Colombia, an estimated 1.7 million Venezuelan migrants have fled their country and settled in neighboring Colombia. In La Guajira, where the Wayuu indigenous communities and internally displaced populations have historically struggled with chronic food insecurity, malnutrition and lack of access to resources, there are over 150,000 Venezuelan migrants. The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the region, further stretching the capabilities of the already fragile health sector and placing people with cleft conditions at an even greater risk.
We are currently doubling our efforts in La Guajira to reach migrant patients and to bolster the local health care system. We are increasing our screening programs to identify all patients in need of cleft surgery, we are conducting top-quality cleft surgery training for medical professionals from the region and upgrading two local hospital rooms, which will increase the yearly provision of surgeries by 350%.
On the other side of the world, war and conflict in Libya have pushed the health system to the verge of collapse and has left 1.3 million people struggling to access basic services. Operation Smile Egypt and Libya have united and are working with the Red Cross, Libyan nonprofit Drawing Smiles, the United Nation’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), UNICEF Libya, and the Egyptian and Libyan ministries of health, to deliver treatment to Libyans affected by cleft conditions. The program was the first of its kind in Egypt and resulted in Libyan patients receiving cleft surgery and care while Libyan medical professionals also received training.
Over the next decade, Operation Smile plans to carefor patients from Libya, Yemen, Palestine and Syria, delivering life-saving surgeries andimproving the health and wellbeing of children born with cleft conditions.
A simple 45 min surgery can change a child's life from disability to ability, from not being able to eat and breathe, to being healthy and thriving, from being shunned and bullied, to being confident and full of SMILES.
"Our vision is not health for some. It’s not health for most. It’s health for all. Poor and rich. Able and disabled. Old and young. Urban and rural. Citizen and refugee. Everyone everywhere.” - Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus WHO Director-General
Please help us bring those smiles to refugee children, who otherwise have no chance of getting this surgery.
On behalf of those children, we thank you in advance.
