A 12-member medical team from Manipur returned home on Friday at the end of Mission Myanmar, performing free operations on 87 patients to correct cleft lips and palates at a hospital at Monywa in the Sagaing region.
The Indian Consulate in Yangon, Smile Train, a children’s charity in New York, and Shija Hospital, Imphal, spearheaded the mission at the General Hospital, Monywa, from May 24 to 28, said Palim K, chairman and managing director of Shija Hospital, a partner of Smile Train, which has done 3,600 surgeries since June 10, 2006.
It is estimated that 1,00,000 cleft lip and palate patients are in Myanmar. At the invitation of the Myanmar government, members of the Smile Train Shija Cleft Project left Imphal on May 22. Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, who was touring the Sagaing region at the time of surgeries, visited the hospital to meet the team.
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