Operation Smile is celebrating surgical success in Mombela, having helped several children and young adults with life-changing surgery.
Mbombela, South Africa (20 May 2024) – Operation Smile South Africa in partnership with the Mpumalanga Department of Health, MySchool MyVillageMyPlanet, and a dedicated team of medical volunteers from across South Africa, successfully completed a weekend surgical programme at Rob Ferreira Hospital, with a total of 24 surgeries and 3 adult patients receiving dental obturators.
Volunteer medical professionals, including plastic and reconstructive surgeons, anaesthesiologists, paediatricians, nurses, dentists, and therapists, worked alongside the Rob Ferreira Paediatric Ward, Theatre and Dental staff to deliver compassionate care to patients and their families, free of charge. This was all made possible thanks to the generous support of Operation Smile’s partners and donors, including MySchool MyPlanet, MyVillage, Glencore, Tata Africa Holdings, Cipla Foundation, I’Langa Mall, Home Cappuccinos, Woolworths, Valencia Wholesalers, The Square Shopping Centre, Spar (Lowveld), Ndalo Lodge and RSA Nelspruit.
Speaking the morning after her five-month-old son, Mpelo received lip surgery, his mother Promise Thembelihle Mathebula (32) who lives in Mbombela, shared her joy and relief that her son has been helped.
“I was born with a cleft lip and palate and experienced severe bullying and isolation growing up. I received surgery through Operation Smile in 2016 and so when my son was born with the same condition, I knew they were the best people to help us,” said Promise, who was one of three adult patients to receive a dental obturator to improve her smile.
Simultaneous to the surgical programme, the Rob Ferreira Hospital Oral Health team gave up their weekend to provide dental care for any child up to 12 years old requiring treatment. In total 81 patients were treated with all receiving instruction on good oral hygiene. Spearheaded by the hospital’s head of dental, Dr Marius van der Walt, who is a long-standing volunteer and educator for Operation Smile, the dental programme’s aim was to provide oral health care outside of school hours, in a fun and welcoming environment.
“It’s such a blessing to be part of a team that truly changes people’s lives. Each surgical programme reminds me what is truly important in life: helping others and appreciating all the things we take for granted, like having a normal, healthy child. My favorite moment on each programme is when the parents see their child directly after surgery for the first time, tears of joy that they don’t need to hide their child from society any longer,” says Dr Marius van der Walt who has served on over 30 Operation Smile surgical programmes around the world.
Another local doctor who will be part of the Operation Smile volunteer team, is anaethetist, Dr Caroline Robertson, who joined Operation Smile last May.
“The Operation Smile surgical programme involves a diverse team of professionals. Together, we collaborate to provide comprehensive care and transform the lives of these children and their families. It’s incredibly inspiring to be surrounded by such compassionate and dedicated individuals—it truly embodies the essence of humanity,” she says.
Beyond these essential surgical and dental interventions, Operation Smile prioritises the transfer of knowledge and skills to local health professionals, thus elevating the standard of medical competence in cleft care and surgery within the region.
“At Operation Smile we seek to empower local healthcare providers so that they can in-turn care for their communities. We provide training opportunities on each surgical programme and host education workshops to facilitate the transfer of skills and knowledge. We also invest in training Community Healthcare Workers in cleft identification and pathways to care and provide basic life support training and paediatric advanced life support training for hospital staff and volunteers,” says Sarah Scarth, Executive Director of Operation Smile South Africa.
Said the MEC for Health in Mpumalanga, Ms Sasekani Manzini
“The Mpumalanga Department of Health welcomes Operation Smile at Rob Ferreira Hospital as we know that members of the community with cleft lip and palate will be assisted and a smile will be brought back into their faces. Above all we are grateful for the learning opportunity and the skill transfer that is always happening when Operation Smile is visiting our province. We are proud as a province of having one of our hard-working and highly committed employees Dr Van Der Walt to be part of the team. We appreciate the dental services that were provided to school-going children over the weekend. As a political Head of the Mpumalanga Department of Health I truly value the support from the organisation, and on behalf of people from Mpumalanga we say thank you.”
Operation Smile medical and non-medical volunteers donate their time, skills, and expertise to treat patients on our short-term surgical programmes and to serve as educators to support health system strengthening. Operation Smile has a global network of more than 5,000 active volunteers, 126 of whom are from South Africa.
“Few experiences are as profoundly impactful as being able to provide life-altering surgery to people in need,” says Naeema Alexander, from MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet CSI Implementation. “We are thrilled to join forces with Operation Smile, leveraging the unwavering support of our remarkable customers and the selfless contributions of our partners, to extend safe surgical interventions to these children and their families. Moreover, this marks our fourth sponsored surgical program as we strive to elevate medical proficiency across the region.”