Kenya: Operation Smile Medical Mission Brings Joy to Patients

By Jepkemei Gachomo

MERU--Mr Ahmed Isaak together with his 10-year old son Abdi Ahmed had the courage and the burning desire to travel for 3 days – covering a distance of about 1,500 kilometres all the way from Mandera town situated along the border of Kenya and Somalia. The tiresome effort was to come for the Safaricom Foundation-sponsored “Operation Smile” mission at the Meru Level 5 Hospital recently.

This is because Abdi has since birth been unable to feed properly like other boys due to a deformity on his lips which makes it impossible for him to swallow both liquid and solid foods.

Just like Abdi, there was Ilias Deqow – from Wajir - who has for over two and half years also struggled and lived with a more serious form of lip deformity which has also made it impossible for him to feed normally.

“My son Abdi has been unable to feed like other young boys his age since his birth. That’s why I decided to personally bring him here for the operation,” said Mr Ahmed Isaak, Abdi’s father, through a translator, adding that the long trip had paid off as the boy could now eat, though slowly, as the wounds from the operation were yet to heal.

Abdi and Ilias were among 125 patients – out of whom 32 had cleft lips and in need of operation – who were recently brought from Wajir in North Eastern Kenya to Meru by Lions Club to undergo various medical operations performed by Operation Smile at Meru Level 5 Hospital.

As part of the initiative, Operation Smile contributes medical personnel – including doctors and nurses – to conduct various facial surgeries to patients drawn from needy households while financial resources to cover logistics and other overheads for the exercise are provided by other firms including the Safaricom Foundation which in March this year made a donation of Kshs 7.65 million.

The Safaricom contribution is meant to benefit over 340 people who will then receive free surgeries in the next three years in planned missions to be conducted all over the country – which other missions planned for Nairobi and Kisumu.

Speaking after attending the Meru Operation Smile Mission on April 26, at the Meru Level 5 Hospital, Safaricom Foundation representative, Janice Mwendameru, said that the grant targets children and young adults across the country and would go a long way in restoring self-esteem and improving the health of the affected.

“Safaricom Foundation has been on the forefront in supporting this mission; and so far, thousands of children and young adults have benefited from it,” said Ms Mwendameru, adding that as the country gears up to achieve the Vision 2030 goals, Safaricom Foundation is determined to give a helping hand in the health sector in order to make accessing health facilities and services cheap and easy.

Operation Smile, established in Kenya in 1987, has provided free surgery to over 8,000 Kenyan children with three missions scheduled every year. The programme aims to reach as many children and young adults with facial deformities from all over the country, with priorities being unilateral and bilateral cleft lips, cleft palates, burns, contractures, keloids and growths.

In October 2008, the Safaricom Foundation funded the Operation Smile Kisumu mission at the New Nyanza Provincial General Hospital which benefitted 156 patients. The Foundation also funded the Nairobi Mission in August 2009 at Kenyatta National Hospital and 99 patients benefited from the free surgery while in during the September 2011 Nyeri Mission, 183 patients were screened with 105 receiving free reconstructive surgery.

The medical missions have so far attracted significant financial contributions from Safaricom Foundation – with Nairobi mission getting Kshs 1 million; Kisumu receiving Kshs 2.75 million while the Nyeri mission was funded to the tune of Kshs 1.77 million.

The Safaricom Foundation support to Operation Smile is crucial as it provides much-needed financial resources to enable the medical personnel perform the facial surgeries in various parts of the country.

“Cleft lip and palate cases are mainly common in North Eastern, Nyanza and parts of Rift Valley provinces. The causes of the deformities range from folic acid deficiency in expectant mothers; excess alcohol consumption by expectant mothers and other mineral and dietary deficiencies,” said Roy Karuiki, Operation Smile’s programme coordinator, adding that such operations cost patients between Kshs 40,000 to 60,000 when performed in private health facilities.

The high cost of the operations, coupled by the fact that most of those who have the deformities come from poor households, have made the Operation Smile missions very crucial for many families with such cases.

“My son Ilias is recovering slowly and I’m really grateful to Operation Smile for the lip surgery performed on my son,” said Mr Deqow, adding that he’d spread the word about the medical missions when he gets back to his home in Wajir town and encourage others with similar cases to come for the same.

Apart from Safaricom Foundation, other donors for the Operation Smile activities are SDV Transami, Syngeneta; Kenya Commercial Bank; Kenya Shell; Farmers Choice; Sara Lee; Knight Frank; Infusiona and In-Time Couriers among others.