Operation Smile to open regional hub in Cebu

International  medical charity Operation Smile will establish a regional hub in the soon-to-rise Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).

Aside from shouldering the costs for the architectural design and furnishings of one floor in the new city hospital, Operation Smile officials yesterday said the group’s international medical volunteers  will also help train and educate local doctors on state-of-the-art medical procedures.

The group will also donate facilities to the CCMC. This would translate into more surgeries on  people and children with cleft lip and cleft palate daily.

“There will be an educational area where they will be teaching. You can also operate anytime. When it’s finished, international doctors will come and go and they will teach the local doctors especially students. They don’t have to go abroad anymore,” said Cebuana businesswoman Mariquita Salimbanon-Yeung, a member of the board of governors of Operation Smile.

Yeung, and Operation Smile president and chief executive officer Dr. William Magee Jr. and his wife Kathleen Magee paid a courtesy visit on Mayor Michael Rama at city hall yesterday morning.

In a presentation, Magee relayed how they started their operations in the Philippines and how they can only cater to few patients with facial and oral malformations every time they conduct missions here in the country.

When he first visited the makeshift CCMC two years ago, Magee recalled his dismay over the circumstances of the hospital’s patients.

“Now, we have a chance to put up one floor of the new hospital. We can operate on thousands of children from the Visayas and all over the country. It will start a momentum. This will become the center for the world for education on how to take care of children with cleft lip and cleft palate,” Magee said.

Magee said the Philippines has a special space in their hearts because of the hospitality and the culture of the people. He said Operation Smile can easily find a home here in the country.

“I am sure somewhere in my past life, I was a Filipino. There’s something  that’s very, very special about your culture and your people. When we come back here, we feel at home,” he said.

Together with Mayor Michael Rama, he said they’ve been talking to people and helping raise funds and donations for the new hospital.

But aside from international support, Magee highlighted that what the city needs the most is the support of the locals since they will be  benefiting the most  from the new hospital.

The officials will be flying to Manila today to continue asking for assistance. Magee said among those who have vowed their support is business tycoon Hans Sy who pledged to donate US$1 million to the endeavor.

Mayor Rama also expressed his gratitude to the group for their support of the city’s hospital project.

He recalled his earlier visit to the main headquarters of Operation Smile in the United States where he met the Magees who expressed their support for the project.