10th Anniversary brings smiles to 50 children in 2010
To donate online to the Smile Foundation, please click here.
Smile Foundation, a South African Non-Profit Organization together with We-love-Africa is going to offer plastic and reconstructive surgery to children with facial anomalies to make these soccer loving children smile.
Surgeries are going to take place in the Smile Foundation affiliated Academic Hospitals nationally.
Smile Foundation works together with the Departments of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in the Universities associated with
- Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital in Johannesburg - University of Witwatersrand
- Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital - Soweto, Johannesburg - University of Witwatersrand
- Dr George Mukhari Hospital - University of Limpopo near Tshwane
- Tygerberg Hospital - University of Stellenbosch - Cape Town, Western Cape
- Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital - University of Cape Town, Western Cape
- Universitas Hospital - Bloemfontein - University of Free State
We-love-Africa has offered to assist at least eight children with life changing plastic surgery.
- The Medical Director and Co-Founder of Smile Foundation, Prof. George Psaras will head up the team of medical professionals in Johannesburg, and Prof Frank Graewe together with Dr Alexander Zuhlke, will head up the team at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town.
Smile Foundation hospitals nationally will operate on facially disfigured children in their aligned hospitals around the country.
Sport gives any child the opportunity to be accepted for what they are and not for what they look like. Mr Nelson Mandela, Chief Patron of The Smile Foundation at the inception of the organization, requested of the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of this organization, to sensitize the public regarding children with facial anomalies the chance to be accepted into society.
Together with We-love-Africa, we have a chance to make a huge contribution to South African children and give them this chance to smile.
The operations that will be performed will include cleft lip and palate, crania-facial procedures, ear reconstruction and facial burns.
The World Cup Soccer Smile Week will be held during the week of June 7-11, 2010.
Participating soccer teams will visit these children who are having the procedures and will no doubt give many participants the chance to really have a big smile meeting some of the heroes of the Soccer world.
On a national basis, The Smile Foundation can offer at least 8 children per hospital the chance to be part of this project. This World Cup Soccer Smile Week will then give nearly 50 children the chance to Smile.
About The Smile Foundation
The Smile Foundation was born in 2000 as the Star Smile Fund following the request of Nelson Mandela to secure surgery for a young child suffering from a rare syndrome causing facial nerve paralysis. The Lubner family took on the challenge to bring surgeons to South Africa from Canada to perform the surgery and provide skills training for Professor George Psaras, Head of Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, and his team. Marc Lubner recruited the support of The Star Newspaper group to launch the Star Smile Fund. In 2007 due to growth, the organization became an independent Section 21 company and was relaunched as The Smile Foundation.
Smile Foundation is a non-profit organization that brings people together for the purpose of providing expert surgical intervention, creating greater social involvement and enabling sensible corporate social investment - to make a difference in the lives of children with facial anomalies.
We offer holistic care to transform the lives of these children who are threatened with rejection by society.
The Smile Foundation is about meaningfully connecting people to bring about new opportunities, new futures, with the result being - new lives.
What We Do
The primary focus of the Smile Foundation is to address the medical backlog in the public healthcare system in dealing with children who suffer from treatable facial abnormalities such as Cleft Lip and Palate, burn victims, Moebius syndrome (facial paralysis) and other conditions.
Patients are sourced via the hospital referral system, word-of-mouth, media awareness/campaigns (e.g. posters at clinics), donor referrals and the Smile Foundation’s toll-free number.
Patients are assessed and if the patient’s condition is urgent, Smile ensures they are scheduled into the immediate hospital operating schedule. If not urgent, they are added to the upcoming Smile Week schedule.
A Smile Week is a jam-packed week of successive surgeries, where economies of scale and the weight of Smile funds, positive PR and organizational support ensures a large number of surgeries are affected. During Smile Week the children’s ward is a hive of activity! The week kicks off with surgeries from early on a Monday morning. Wednesday sees our Press Launch, during which donors, celebrities and members of the media are invited to come into the hospital and experience the excitement of a Smile Week. A party for the kids is also arranged, here entertainment, party packs and smiles are in abundance! Finally on Friday the last of the patients are operated on and those who are those who are able to, are discharged and sent home having had a life-changing week in their young lives.
So Much More Than Surgery
There is an increased focus and understanding of the psychological and social needs of the patients and their families, and in keeping with the Smile Foundation’s objective of offering holistic care, greater focus is being placed in this aspect. A child friendly system has been developed to reduce the children’s fear of surgery with services ranging from a proper induction and explanation of their procedure through role playing prior to surgery, to the child leaving the hospital with a great understanding of their experience. Pediatric trauma prevention involves acquiring skills that can be made available to all workers in the health care system.
Contact Details
The Smile Foundation
Postal Address:
PO Box 652411
Benmore
2010
Physical Address:
A1, Montega
95 Katherine Street
Sandton
2196
Phone Number: 087 808 8682
Fax Number: 0865 381 287
Website:
www.smilefoundationsa.org
To donate online to the Smile Foundation, please click here.