BOARDING
O peration S mile
Working as student
educators with a
medical charity
Operation Smile is a charity that provides free and
safe cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries to people across
the world, in over 60 countries. One in 700 babies are
born with a cleft lip or cleft palate. In countries such
as the US or the UK, cleft repair surgeries are readily
available and given to every child after the age of six
months. This is not the case in many other countries,
where families reject their babies upon birth, seeing
their child’s cleft lip as ugly, bad luck or a mark of
evil. In addition to this, a cleft lip or cleft palate
causes malnourishment as sufferers are unable to eat
sufficiently or breastfeed. The surgeries that Operation
Smile provide are thus invaluable.
Isabella Bristow and I have been involved with
the charity for a year. Recently, we joined them
on a ‘medical mission’ to Cebu in the Philippines,
where we had the role of student educators. This
involved teaching patients and their families about
different healthcare modules such as CPR, ORT (Oral
Rehydration Therapy), the Heimlich manoeuvre, basic
healthcare, burn care and nutrition.
Our other role was to entertain and comfort the
patients on their journey through pre-op, child-life,
surgery and post-op, with toys, colouring, stickers,
beach balls, pipe cleaners, dominos, and even Jenga!
We treasured this time as it allowed us to connect
with the patients and their families. We became
friendly faces in an unfamiliar and intimidating place.
It was great to meet new people, including the
amazing team of medical and local volunteers, as
well as being able to interact and learn from
the surgeons and anaesthetists while they were
performing surgery.
Experiencing the inspiring work of Operation Smile
at first hand was an honour. It has permanently
changed our outlook and driven both of us to take
our fundraising and advocacy further. Thank you to
all of those who donated.
Emmy Shaw, Lower Sixth
Julie Redding is the school’s
first Head of Entrepreneurship.
Visit our blog to read more: http://studentprograms.operationsmile.org/from-the-field-philippines/
68
VA L E T E
69