 (U.S. Navy/ Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class SW/AW Joshua Valcarcel) USNS Mercy at sea.
Operation Smile Joins USNS Mercy for Southeast Asia Deployment
By Press Release, Operation Smile
JUNE 27, 2008 Operation Smile is joining the United States Navy’s hospital ship, USNS Mercy, during its summer 2008 humanitarian civic assistance deployment. Operation Smile will be working side-by-side on the USNS Mercy in four countries: Philippines, Vietnam, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea.
Approximately 350 children suffering with cleft lips and cleft palates will receive free reconstructive surgery as a result of these medical missions. The USNS Mercy mission, Pacific Partnership 2008, will provide humanitarian services to five countries in Southeast Asia. Pacific Partnership 2008 brings together host nation medical personnel, partner nation military medical and construction personnel, and non-governmental organizations to provide medical, dental, construction and other services ashore and afloat.
USNS Mercy departed from San Diego, Calif., on May 1. The first mission involving Operation Smile is taking place in Cotabato, Philippines, from May 29-June 12. Nearly 50 Operation Smile volunteers, most from the Philippines, provided 100 free physical examinations at Cotabato Regional Hospital to identify surgical patients who were transported aboard the ship for surgery. The Operation Smile medical team worked with Navy medical personnel and provided 54 patients with cleft lip and cleft palate surgery.
During the mission, Captain Robert Wiley said, “For the last several months I have been wrapped up in the myriad of details necessary to get this ship here. As the work piles up, it’s easy to find one skimming over the word humanitarian when using the expression ‘humanitarian mission.’ And then the day comes along when you see a child - born with a terrible deformity – walk aboard your ship. Holding her hand is a father desperately hoping to give this child a normal life. There really is a human in humanitarian. And it is in our humanity we will find the method of our compassion for others.”
Operation Smile Chief Medical Officer Dr. Randy Sherman said, “Operation Smile is honored to participate in the 2008 USNS Mercy Pacific Partnership deployment. After introducing ourselves to the Navy in 2006 during the Mercy mission to Bangladesh, we joined its sister ship, the USNS Comfort last year, for a multi-site partnership in Latin America. Operation Smile medical volunteers from the Philippines, Vietnam, Australia, the United States and other partner countries are excited to join with the Mercy and its crew in bringing new smiles to children throughout the Pacific basin this summer.”
USNS Mercy will move on to Nha Trang, Vietnam, for the next medical mission involving Operation Smile in mid-June.
Follow the deployment and read the blog of USNS Mercy Captain Robert Wiley: mercycaptain.blogspot.com/
www.operationsmile.org
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