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Operation Smile and Covidien Celebrate 20 Years of Partnership, Giving New Smiles to Children Worldwide Suffering from Clefts
Covidien, a leading global provider of healthcare products, and Operation Smile, an international children's medical charity, are celebrating 20 years of collaborating to transform the lives of children born with facial deformities. Covidien and its global employees have pledged to continue supporting Operation Smile through volunteerism, product donations and funding support.
This coming year, Covidien will aid surgical missions by providing employee volunteers and critical medical supplies such as endo-tracheal tubes and suction catheters. Additionally, Covidien is making its China Clinical Institute in Shanghai available free of charge to help sustain medical training in that country.
Covidien's global employees have demonstrated strong support of Operation Smile by volunteering for surgical missions in China, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic and the Philippines. In the last five surgical missions during which Covidien employees volunteered, Operation Smile's medical teams provided 570 comprehensive healthcare evaluations and performed approximately 350 free surgeries.
Most recently, in the Dominican Republic, Covidien employees helped children like eight-month-old Yurileidy Casilla Sano who was born with a cleft lip and cleft palate. Covidien's employee volunteers helped comfort Yurileidy and her mother Ana before her surgery. Afterward, the employees were there to witness the miraculous moment when Ana first saw her daughter's smile, knowing Yurileidy's life was now changed forever.
Covidien has supported Operation Smile since 1992 in its commitment to provide quality healthcare worldwide and fund local programs that offer care and treatment to the underserved. Over the past two decades, Covidien has contributed medical equipment and supplies, and donated funds for surgical missions, a burn mission, and important medical education.
"By collaborating with Operation Smile, together we will better the lives of children in communities around the world," said Teresa Hacunda, Vice President of Civic Affairs for Covidien. "Covidien is proud to partner with Operation Smile in support of their life-saving work and we share their passion for helping to improve the health and well-being of people in need."
Every three minutes, a child is born with a cleft. One in 10 will die before their first birthday. Those who survive often can't eat or speak properly, and many never attend school. Operation Smile's programs are designed to create a permanent global impact and create self-sufficiency in developing countries. The volunteer-based nonprofit works in more than 60 countries to provide free surgeries for children and train doctors in developing countries so they are empowered to treat their own populations.
"For two decades, Covidien has served as an invaluable partner to help us give smiles to children around the world," said Dr. Bill Magee, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Operation Smile. "To truly make a difference in these children's lives – and give them the future they deserve – we need the support of our partners like Covidien who are helping us create a lasting impact globally."
For more information on Operation Smile’s global efforts, visit www.operationsmile.org, follow @OperationSmile on Twitter, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/operationsmile.
About Operation Smile (www.operationsmile.org)
Operation Smile, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, is an international children's medical charity with a presence in more than 60 countries, whose network of more than 5,000 medical volunteers from over 80 countries is dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children. Since its founding in 1982, Operation Smile has provided more than 3.5 million healthcare evaluations and conducted over 200,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities, as well as patients suffering from burns. To build long-term self-sufficiency in developing countries, Operation Smile trains doctors and local medical professionals in its partner countries so they are empowered to treat their own local communities, donates medical equipment and supplies, and provides year-round medical treatment through its worldwide Comprehensive Care Centers.
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