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Smile back on 5,000 cleft lips in Assam
Bijay Sankar Bora/TNS

Guwahati, March 4
Happiness of the parents of eight-month-old Bismita Rajbongshi knew no bounds when they found the cleft lip of their young daughter had been treated by a team of doctors working in Operation Smile Comprehensive Cleft Care Clinic at the government-run Mohendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital here.

Bismita happened to be the 5,000th patient in Assam treated under the programme. Operation Smile has succeeded in bringing smiles on faces of over 5,000 children and their parents during the last two years in Assam while operating under private-public partnership (PPP) mode in the state.

Ranjit Barthakur, Chairman, Operation Smile, India, said, “The cleft-free mission has been a tremendous success. It has brought smiles to 5,000 children and their families. Our endeavour is to live up to the challenges of providing treatment to 10,000 children with cleft deformities in the country in the next two years.”

“The best thing about the entire exercise is that doctors with different backgrounds drawn from 20 countries have joined hands with local doctors and nurses with the mission to make Assam a cleft-free state,” he said.

Terming the completion of 5,000 cleft lip surgeries at the centre a great success, Assam Chief Minister Gogoi complimented the entire team consisting of visiting and local doctors, paramedics and nurses, for the wonderful team work.

“The team has been carrying on the work with missionary zeal. The day is not far off when Assam will become a completely cleft-free state,” Gogoi said, saluting the founder of Operation Smile, Dr William P Magee.

Stating that the 'Operation Smile' exercise in Assam was a classic example of success under PPP mode, Assam health minister Dr HB Sarma said, “The success of the programme lies in the fact that all its constituents - Operation Smile, government of Assam, NRHM, Assam and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and allied trusts have worked in tandem and with missionary zeal.”

Operation Smile took off in Assam in January 2009. Till date, it has treated 5,125 patients. Of these, 2,069 were treated at the cleft care centre in Guwahati.

The target for the coming year is treatment of 3,000 patients.