Project by ACMAO - www.acmao.ca

Hand-in-Hand and the Smile Project

Hand-in-Hand NGO has been recently involved in the Smile Project, a private-public initiative that provides free reconstructive surgery to Armenian children and young adults with certain birth defects. The procedures were performed by a team of surgeons from Smile Network International (SNI), a nonprofit organization that provides reconstructive surgeries and related healthcare services to impoverished children and young adults in developing countries. Between October 4 and 10, the SNI surgical team operated on 50 patients from Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh suffering from congenital cleft lip and cleft palate. The team will perform additional surgeries in the Spring of 2009.

The Smile Project is a collaborative effort of the Cafesjian Family Foundation's Public Health Outreach Program, Hope for the City, Arabkir Medical Center, Fund for Armenian Relief, Hand in Hand Foundation (Nagorno-Karabakh), the Ministries of Health of the Republic of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, and Yerevan State Medical University.

The role of Hand-in-Hand has been the search and screening of patients with cleft lip and palate defects from all over Karabakh. Dr. Vahag Ghazaryan, the Medical Director of Hand-in-Hand, has led search and screen process.

Read the full Press Release by the Cafesjian Family Foundation here.