VIB supports nearly 90 children for cleft lip surgery

Nearly 90 poor children born with cleft lips, cleft palates in Ho Chi Minh city were provided with free surgeries under the medical charity mission by Vietnam International Bank (VIB) and Operation Smile Vietnam (OSV). The mission took place on November 3-11 at University Medical Center HCMC, 215 Hong Bang Street, District 5, HCMC.

After being screened by the doctors and experts from Operation Smile and University Medical Center HCMC, the children were granted free surgeries and travel allowance, food, and medical assistance while staying at hospital. Post-surgery checking has been taken freely at a specific time, including one week, six months, and one year after the surgery. VIB’s staff joined as volunteers before and after surgeries for helping patients and their families.

For many years, VIB has accompanied OSV, aiming to change lives of poor children born with cleft lips, cleft palates by providing free and safe surgeries. This is one of the annual activities of VIB towards the community, with the hope to contribute to Vietnam’s economic and social development in general and improve the quality of life for underprivileged people in particular.

In 2018, VIB coordinated with OSV to provide medical consultations, free surgeries for more than 200 children with cleft lips, cleft palates across the country. Besides VIB’s financial support, the bank’s employees joined to support the missions in Hanoi and HCMC and become the encouragement as well as spiritual supporters to patients and their families.

Since its first medical mission to Vietnam in 1989, Operation Smile has provided medical consultations and free safe surgeries for more than 42,000 children all over the provinces of Vietnam.

To date, Vietnam is one of the countries with the highest proportion of children with cleft lips, cleft palates in the world. According to preliminary statistics, more than 3,000 children were born with facial deformity (1/700 ratio) in Vietnam each year along with approximately 10,000 patients who have not been operated. Meanwhile, it takes as little as 45 minutes to repair a cleft lip and/or a cleft palate, helping change a child’s life.