Watsons and Operations Smile Philippines change lives, one smile at a time
This story is brought to you by Watsons Philippines.
Many children around the world are born and are living with untreated cleft lip and/or palate, a common birth defect where a baby’s lip and/or mouth do not form properly in the early stages of pregnancy. In the Philippines alone, 1 in 500 children are born with this condition. Every year, about 4,500 babies are born with this facial and oral malformation and not everyone is given a chance to have a new, beautiful smile.
A cleft, depending on the type and severity, can cause serious health problems if left untreated. The best thing is that a child born with a cleft will do well and lead a healthy life if treatment and correction is done at the earliest time possible.
Operations Smile Philippines (OSP) has been helping and changing the lives of many children born with a cleft since 1982. And for the past 9 years, Watsons Philippines has been partnering with Operations Smile Philippines in making sure that more and more lives of cleft patients are transformed.
"The partnership was paused in 2020 because of the pandemic but this year, we are back with Smile For Good. Of course, we will be very mindful of the physical distancing restrictions, but our desire to continue to bring smiles to the children has not wavered," said Viki Encarnacion, PR & Sustainability Director of Watsons.
"We are very proud to be partners with Watsons on this project for nine years running. Their dedication to transform lives despite the pandemic is really admirable and Operation Smile is happy to be doing this with them," said Emiliano Romano, Executive Director of Operation Smile Philippines.
Watsons Philippines is also engaging with its employees, strategic partners, and customers in order to sponsor as many free surgical missions to continue changing lives, one smile at a time. Everyone, actually, can take part in providing a bright, beautiful new smile, and a healthier, happier future to a child born with a cleft lip or cleft palate.
Visit Operation Smile Philippines to know more.
