UAE. Etihad Airways has collaborated with Operation Smile for the cleft charity’s 25th anniversary medical mission to Vietnam.
The “˜Next Era of Smiles’ project was Operation Smile’s largest in Asia, involving more than 5,000 children born with facial deformities or requiring dental treatment. The medical charity performs cleft lip and cleft palate surgery, and delivers post-operative and ongoing medical therapies to children in more than 60 countries.
Operation Smile has provided more than 33,000 free medical procedures in Vietnam since its inception in 1989.
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Operation Smile has provided more than 33,000 free medical procedures in Vietnam since its inception in 1989 |
Volunteers from Etihad Airways’ Vietnam and Abu Dhabi offices helped patients during surgery pre-screening sessions and distributed blankets and quilts which the airline had donated. According to Etihad some patients travelled from nearby provinces, in some cases travelling for days, in the hope of receiving the free surgery.
Etihad Airways General Manager Vietnam Frederic Huynh-Quan-Dat said the airline was proud to support Operation Smile as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility programme. “Operation Smile plays an important role in the local community by offering safe, quality surgical care in places where access to surgery would not ordinarily be available. Our hope is that these corrective surgeries will improve the physical, mental and social well-being of each child who was treated.”
Operation Smile Vice President for Development in Asia Viet Nguyen thanked Etihad Airways for contributing to a successful mission. “The Next Era of Smiles is proof that small acts of humanity can make a big difference. Our surgeries take as little as 45 minutes and can change the life of a child with a facial deformity.
“The mission also made an important contribution to building a self-sufficient local medical team. Volunteer medical practitioners from more than 26 countries around the world including the United Arab Emirates, United States, Australia and South America passed on valuable skills and training to Vietnam-based practitioners,” Nguyen concluded.
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Executive Director of Operation Smile, Morag Cromey-Hawke (second left) and Etihad Airways employees (left to right) Luzelle Boado, Marc Tolentino, Mai Hieu Le, Vivian Nguyen, Eleanor Rivera, and Hiroki Ishii in Vietnam for Operation Smile’s 25th anniversary mission |
