VIETNAM SAYS THANKS FOR THE SMILES
November 01, 2006
Section: News
KIAMA has a special place in the heart of Operation Smile Vietnam chairman Ken Atkinson.
The organisations head flew in to Australia from Vietnam this week and made a special trip to Kiama to thank the local people, businesses and community groups who have made a difference in the lives of Vietnamese children born with cleft palate deformities.
The operation costs just AUS$100 for each child and takes less than an hour.
Funds raised locally have so far paid for surgery to repair the faces of close to 200 babies.
While Operation Smile has a foundation base in Brisbane, Mr Atkinson said he had not seen a more generous response from any other Australian town than Kiama.
It is just amazing, said Mr Atkinson during his visit to Kiama on Monday.
The amount of support from local people and businesses has been just outstanding weve never seen anything like it.
Mr Atkinson paid tribute to local workhorse Andy Keating, who has driven fundraising for the charity since visiting Vietnam several years ago and seeing the work the organisation does in poverty-stricken areas of the country.
Andy is one of a kind what hes done to generate the support of people in Kiama to our cause is just incredible.
Operation Smile Vietnam is hoping to open three care centres for children in Vietnam within the next two years.
These centres facilitate services were not currently able to offer like speech therapy, counselling for families and orthodontic services, as well as including a couple of operating theatres in each centre, said Mr Atkinson.
Operation Smile began in Vietnam 15 years ago with medical teams brought in from other countries to perform the life-changing surgeries. A growing focus on training of local doctors and nurses now sees the work carried out by Vietnamese medical staff.
It has allowed us to expand our service - this year we will have operated on 2000 babies. Its this type of continuous care that we want to do more of, said Mr Atkinson.
Locally, Kiama Lions Club have taken on fundraising responsibility through the launch of Kiama Lions Vietnam Childrens Fund.