Around 1,000 Vietnamese and foreign volunteers, 5,000 children, and families will take part in a campaign called “the next era of smile” organized at 25 places around the country to mark Operation Smile's 25th anniversary. The campaign will feature a series of events like screening for cleft palates, research studies, and medical conferences in which leading international medical experts will take part, and fund raising and awareness programs. There will be simultaneous cleft and dental screening from November 17 to 21 in the six cities and provinces of Hanoi, Nghe An, Hue, HCM City, Bac Lieu, and An Giang, with doctors performing surgeries where required. Operation Smile will also carry out the first ever comprehensive study in 41 provinces of the backlog of children born with facial deformities. Later it will draw up plans to provide free surgeries to eradicate the backlog and set up a system to monitor and track facial deformity rates amongst newborn babies. The campaign, beginning this month, will go on until January. (Vietnam News Nov 10)
