Humanity has the power of a smile; a simple and universal gesture that unites and brings together even the most distant peoples and people. But the smile is not always “obvious”. For many people – such as those born with a facial malformation such as cleft lip and palate in low- and middle-income countries – it is a challenge. For this reason, from 31 March to 27 April 2024, the Operation Smile Italia ETS Foundation launches the awareness and fundraising campaign “A Global Smile”, to support the medical programs that Operation Smile has been implementing around the world for over forty years. in favor of those who do not have the possibility of accessing the medical assistance they need. Donating is easy, with a text message or a landline call to the solidarity number 45597.
INSIGHTS
Every three minutes a child is born with a facial malformation such as cleft lip and palate.
A pathology that affects every 500-7501 newborns worldwide. Bringing surgical and multidisciplinary care to anyone in need in the world is what Operation Smile has been doing since 1982, creating the conditions to implement access to medical-surgical care in low- and middle-income countries. To support the Organization’s medical programs, the Operation Smile Italia ETS Foundation launches the awareness and fundraising campaign “A Global Smile”. Starting from March 31st and until April 27th 2024, everyone can donate by calling or sending an SMS to the solidarity number 45597.
Thanks to the professionalism of over 6 thousand medical volunteers, healthcare personnel and the support of donors, Operation Smile provides free multidisciplinary care in over 35 countries, carries out research and trains local staff, creating sustainable development and networking with other non-governmental organisations, with which collaborates to guarantee the right of every child to access free, safe and quality care, contributing to improving hospital infrastructure. To date, Operation Smile has treated over 400 thousand people and has planned, by 2032, a significant expansion of its programmatic activity, with the ambitious goal of providing free care for 1 million patients born with facial malformations and for those who are awaiting essential surgical treatment.
“Supporting Operation Smile means ensuring that many children receive not only surgery, but also all the treatments and medical assistance necessary to help them improve their quality of life, eat and speak with less difficulty, but also look to the future with confidence and hope. It also means improving access to care and the standard of medical care in the countries in which we are present – states Marcella Bianco, General Director of the Operation Smile Italia ETS Foundation – With the “A Global Smile” Campaign we can really make a difference in the lives of a child, his family and the entire community: we give a smile which means the right to be cared for.”
The “A Global Smile” campaign has the information support of Sky, La7 and Mediaset. The value of the donation will be 2 euros for each SMS sent from WINDTRE, TIM, Vodafone, Iliad, PosteMobile, Coop Voce, Tiscali mobile phones; it will be 5 or 10 euros for calls from the TIM, Vodafone, WINDTRE, Fastweb, Tiscali, Geny Communications landline and, again for the landline, 5 euros from TWT Group Unidata, Convergenze, PosteMobile.
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