SYNGENTA HOUSES OPERATION SMILE MISSION IN KENYA

Operation smile is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to providing free reconstructive surgery to children and young adults born with correctable facial deformities. It was founded in 1982 by Dr Bill Magee, an American surgeon and has a presence in 51 countries with the head office being in Norfolk, Virginia USA.

Operation Smile Mission in Kenya (OSMIK) is active in 6 sites across Kenya, i.e, Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Nyeri and Meru, yet the need in Kenya is great.

According to the World Health Organization International Collaborative Research on Craniofacial Anomalies, cleft lips and palates occur in approximately 1 per 500-700 births, the ratio varying considerably across geographic areas or ethnic groupings.

This means that the backlog of cases in Kenya could be as high as 20,000, or more. With a database of over 300 dedicated medical and non-medical Kenyan volunteers, Operation Smile Mission in Kenya, in partnership with Syngenta East Africa, aims to change the lives of all these needy Kenyan children and to give them a chance to have a normal life.

In as little as 45 minutes, our medical volunteers are able to restore dignity to the life of a child, giving that child the opportunity to attend school, speak clearly, or simply to smile without being ashamed of his or her appearance. Since inception in Kenya in 1987, Operation Smile Mission in Kenya has provided free surgical treatment to more than 8000 patients all over the country. In the year 2008, we were able to operate on 532 children in Meru, Nyeri, Mombasa and Kisumu. In 2009, we were able to operate on 398 children in Nakuru, Nairobi and Nyeri.

Our achievements could not have been possible without support from our partners in the corporate sector who lend a helping hand in terms of financial and in kind assistance under their various models of Corporate Social Responsibility. Syngenta East Africa has for a long time been one such partner and has consolidated this relationship by donating office space to Operation Smile Mission in Kenya since September 2009.

Changing Lives One Smile at a Time

For more contact: www.operationsmile.or.ke