By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, January 19: The NEEPCO–Operation Smile India Surgery Week was iugurated by PC Pankaj, Chairman–cum–Maging Director of NEEPCO, in Guwahati today. The week is being observed at the Operation Smile India Comprehensive Cleft Care Centre, MMC Hospital in Guwahati for cleft patients from Meghalaya.
Operation Smile India started working in the Northeast in January 2009 at the invitation of the Government of Assam. Initially, it was only conducting medical missions, but the demand was huge. To meet the demand, it set up a Comprehensive Cleft Care Centre in 2011 in Guwahati with support from the government. Since January 2013, Operation Smile is also working with the Government of Meghalaya to provide cleft treatment to patients from Meghalaya.
Till date it provided 13,000 safe surgeries to patients from the region through a combition of outreach camps and the Centre at Guwahati. It has also established itself globally as a world–class cleft surgery and training centre churning out the biggest volume of surgeries in a year, with an impeccable record of safety and quality.
In September 2014, NEEPCO came forward to support the cleft patients of Meghalaya. It joined hands with the Government of Meghalaya and Operation Smile India to jointly support the treatment of 120 cleft patients in 2014–15.