(VNF) - Operation Smile Vietnam (OSV) in partnership with the HCM City University Medical Center will provide free check-ups and surgeries for nearly 100 children with cleft lips and cleft palates in Ho Chi Minh City on June 17^th.

The mission targets to provide free medical services for patients at the HCM City University Medical Center (221B, Hoang Van Thu Street, Ward 8, Phu Nhuan District).

Within 05 days from June 21st to 23rd, OSV will conduct the surgeries for patients who are eligible for surgery.

The information was announced on June 14th by OSV and the HCM City University Medical Center.

Last week, OSV medical mission to Hanoi was successfully accomplished with 133 patients receiving health care evaluations. 80 of them received surgeries while another will continue to receive further treatments.

Since it first inception in 1989 as part of the normalization process between Vietnam and America, Operation Smile has been providing close to 40,000 free surgeries and medical treatments to the Vietnamese children and families, bring them new lives, hopes and dignities.

Operation Smile is an international children's medical charity that performs safe, effective cleft lip and cleft palate surgery, and delivers postoperative and ongoing medical therapies to children in low and middle income countries.

Every three minutes a child is born with a cleft. A child with a cleft has twice the odds of dying before their first birthday. Children with cleft conditions who survive may have difficulty eating, speaking, hearing or breathing properly.

Harelip and cleft palate is one of the most common congenital anomaly of newborns in Vietnam. The rate of children born with harelip and cleft palate is 1 out of every 700. This not only affects the patients’ appearance, but also impacts their physical and psychological development./.

Translated by Minh Chau