Morocco and US Operation Smile NGO sign cooperation accord
The U.S. "Operation Smile," a non-governmental medical organization signed lately here a cooperation accord with the Moroccan health department.
The five-year deal aims to foster the partnership between the two sides in matters of child facial surgery, nursing and medicare.
Under the accord, the US organization pledges to train Moroccan pediatric surgeons on latest plastic facial techniques, while the Moroccan Health Department undertakes to provide all the facilities necessary to "Smile Operation" volunteers to enable them carry out their humanitarian mission in the best conditions.
The signing of the accord was made on the fringes of a mission conducted currently by the US organization in Morocco.
A 42-member volunteer medical team intends to provide 150 life-changing surgeries to correct cleft lips, cleft palates and burns.
Each Operation Smile cleft lip surgery takes about 45 minutes and costs approximately $750.
According to the American NGO, about one in 500 children in developing countries is born with a birth defect, about double the rate in the United States.
While the exact cause of many congenital deformities is unknown, experts believe a combination of genetic, nutritional and environmental factors affect both children's pre- and postnatal development.
Operation Smile was founded in 1982 by plastic surgeon Dr. William P. Magee, Jr. and his wife Kathy, a nurse and clinical social worker, who traveled to the Philippines with a medical group to perform facial surgery.
They found hundreds of children ravaged by deformities, and most were turned away from treatment. The Magees created a follow-up mission the next year to help the more than 200 children who had been left behind. The Philippines effort became an annual mission, Operation Smile was founded and missions reached into other developing countries and the United States.
In almost 16 years, Operation Smile has provided free reconstructive surgery to more than 43,000 children in 16 developing countries and the United States.
In 1998, Operation Smile's volunteers plan to help 5,000 children worldwide.