ALAMINOS CITY – Some 7,000 children from various parts of the country, who were born with hare and cleft lip palate, can now smile again and unashamedly face other children.

Thanks to a group of dedicated Filipino and American surgeons and their staff who made this possible in their yearly medical missions in the Philippines for 17 years now.

Mayor Hernani Braganza said that for 17 long years that the mission has been in the Philippines, the Philippine-American Group of Educators and Surgeons (PAGES) has made 7,000 children happy as they can now flash toothy smiles and act as normal kids.

Braganza hailed members of the group, numbering 67, for making Alaminos as one of their itineraries this year.

Calling them “God sent”, Braganza said Alaminos City was lucky because the mission will benefit his constituents who can not afford to pay the high cost of undergoing operations in private hospitals.

Cleft palate operation could cost some P50,000 in private hospitals. Harelip operations charge is about P25,000, the mayor said.

The city government of Alaminos, Braganza said, was to take care of the medicines for all the patients as its counterpart.

The group agreed to return in April this year to operate on more patients suffering from harelip, cleft lip palate, burn contractures and other in-born deformities.

The surgical operations were undertaken under the group’s Operation Hope or Helping Other People Excel.

The group maintains that if a child has a hare lip or cleft lip palate, he may be ashamed to go to school, to be with playmates or to live the life of a normal child, Braganza said.

The participants to the mission are nine surgeons, 10 sociologists, 15 nurses, three pediatricians, one medical students and 24 supporting staff, from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Puerto Rico.

Braganza said the group brought with them their own surgical equipment, worth from P6 to P7 million, which they will leave to the Western Pangasinan District Hospital after their medical mission.

Aside from their equipment, the group also brought gifts, in the form of clothing, rice and canned gods for identified 500 indigents families from the city under their own “Operation Grace.”