PRESS RELEASE
THE SMILE PROJECT
USA contact: Madlene Minassian, [email protected]
(818) 434-1725
Armenia contact: Erik Grigorian, [email protected]
(+374) 99 00 25 30
June 23, 2009
SMILE PROJECT IN ARMENIA ADDRESSES THE SURGICAL NEEDS OF THE
CLEFT LIP & CLEFT PALATE COMMUNITY IN ARMENIA FOR THE NEXT 5 – YEARS
Initiative is a collaborative effort of many non-governmental
organizations and Ministry of Health
The Smile Project is a collaborative effort of the Ministry of Health of the
Republic of Armenia, the Smile Network International, Arabkir Medical
Center, Cafesjian Family Foundation and Hope for the City, Fund for Armenian
Relief, Hand in Hand Foundation (Nagorno-Karabakh), the Armenian Gospel
Mission, Ministry of Health of Nagorno- Karabakh, Yerevan State Medical
University, and philanthropists Arthur Ispirian and Madlene
Minassian-Ispirian.
YEREVAN – The Smile Project, a private-public initiative that provides free
reconstructive surgery to Armenian children and young adults with cleft lip
and palate birth defects, launched its second surgical mission in Yerevan
this month.
A team of medical professionals from Smile Network International (SNI), a
nonprofit organization that provides reconstructive surgeries, arrived in
Yerevan to perform the surgeries. One June 20th and 21st, the Smile Project
assessed over 150 surgical candidates and between June 22nd and July 3rd,
the SNI surgical team will perform a second round of fifty to fifty-five
surgeries for patients from Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh suffering from
congenital cleft lip and cleft palate deformities.
The Smile Project organized a similar campaign in October of 2008, when the
SNI surgical team operated on 51 patients from Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
After the second mission the Smile Project will have addressed the majority
of cleft lip & cleft palate needs in Armenia for the next five years, while
leaving back local expertise and capacity to address those new cases to come
and those patients who have not been selected within these 100 surgeries.
`Like all children, these children are born beautiful, but it is only after
this life changing procedure that the entire world sees their beauty.
Through these life-changing reconstructive surgeries, the children and young
adults undergoing those procedures will now receive a smile, and with a
smile will come new friends, opportunities, and a better life,’ said Tatul
Hakobyan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Health. `We can already see
the
impact of the operations from October 2008, on many of our children’s lives,
and impatiently await the second round of smiles,’ Madlene
Minassian-Ispirian co-founder and director of the Smile Project concluded.
Patients with cleft lip or cleft palate have difficulty eating, drinking,
and speaking. As a result, they suffer from malnourishment, stunted
development, and lethargy. `We are proud that within two years with the
massive support of our partner organizations we will have addressed the need
for a majority of Armenia’s congenital cleft lip & cleft palate population’
says Arabkir Medical Center Plastic Surgeon Hrachya Arshakyan, who has been
instrumental in implementing the project.
The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia along with Arabkir
Medical Center hosts the surgeries at their center, covering costs related
to the hospital stay, Smile Network International covers transportation and
lodging costs as well as many costs related to the surgeries, the volunteers
are hosted by efforts of the Cafesjian Family Foundation and Hope for the
City who provides on ground transportation and meals, while patient expenses
such as transportation, food and lodging are covered by the Fund for
Armenian Relief. Yerevan State Medical University organizes lectures by SNI
surgeons and sends residents to train with Smile Network Surgeons and
medical staff so that their expertise may be passed to aspiring plastic
surgeons, maxilla-facial surgeons and anesthesiologists, while the
Minassan-Ispirian family has taken over many additional costs to make the
mission a reality. `We appreciate our partners and their support, care, and
gestures of goodwill,’ Madlene Minassian-Ispirian said, and applauded the
collaborative participation of these organizations.