From Saurav Bora
GUWAHATI: An emotional Bimola Ronghang was all smiles as her two-year-old daughter, Minakhee, a cleft patient, helped herself sip milk from a bottle.
On the adjacent bed at Mission Smile’s comprehensive cleft care centre here was Phril Hanse holding her 14month old daughter, Lucy Mary Taro, another toddler with a facial deformity, at her playful best.
Both infants would be undergoing corrective surgeries at the cleft care centre in a day or two.
The two families from a village in Nongpoh region in Ri Bhoi district had little idea about the free “magic surgery” that will not only bring smiles on the tender faces but also shed a stigma attached with their condition since birth.
“I did not know about the surgery nor did we have the money to get it done. We are very poor and try to make ends meet every day by selling what we produce in our farm,” an apparently relieved Bimola told this correspondent.
However, in Lucy’s case, there was a problem with her weight. “She was below 6kg last year but now she is over 9kg and therefore eligible for the surgery,” he elder brother, Siprian Taro, 20, said.
Another toddler with a cleft lip from Meghalaya, Lawansuk Dhar, just 13 months, will also be operated upon as well. “We have come from Lumparing, Shillong and are happy that her cleft condition would be rectified here and she would start smiling soon,” Badarihun Dhar, her mother, said.
Under a MoU signed with the Meghalaya government in December 2012, Mission Smile, formerly Operation Smile India, completed 1,000 cleft surgeries on patients of the state last month.
The cost of a surgery comes to Rs 34,000, which is equally shared by Mission Smile and the state government. Mission Smile currently has tie-ups with the governments of Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura.
“We conducted the 1000th surgery in Meghalaya in the first half of March this year, which by itself is a milestone ever since the MoU was signed. Our target in the next ten years will be to cover the backlog of 2000 estimated cleft patients to make Meghalaya cleft free,” Dipul Malakar, senior manager (programme), Mission Smile told The Shillong Times on Wednesday.
Mission Smile has associated with Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, an initiative under National Health Mission, for early identification of children with facial deformities from five to 18 years at the school level and from birth to below five years at Anganwadi centres.
“Mission Smile also carries out a parallel awareness and screening programme to identify cleft patients of all ages for surgeries. Besides, we make sure that we do not leave out those patients who have dropped out of schools,” Malakar said.
Four outreach camps (where at least 50 patients were operated in each camp) were conducted at Civil Hospital, Shillong till 2015.
Till date, as many as 17, 708 cleft surgeries have been carried out under Mission Smile at the Comprehensive Cleft Care Centre located on the premises of MMC Hospital here.
Established in 2011, the centre equipped with the latest equipment also provides post-operative care, counselling, medical training and education among other services.